Loblolly Pine
One dictionary on the web defines a “loblolly” as a thick gruel, or a mire. The word is also used commonly to describe a gruel-like ground, that is, a depression that remains wet with puddles.
In the low country of North and South Carolina a certain pine tree was known to grow in such depressions, and was given the name “loblolly pine.” But the loblolly grows in many kinds of soils and conditions. It grows native in GuilfordCounty, and is also commonly planted, perhaps by low country folk who miss their stately beauty.
Loblolly pines are also one of the most commonly planted pines grown for pulp on tree farms all over the coastal plain of North and south Carolina.
Loblollies are fairly easy to identify in GuilfordCounty, in that they have the longest needles of the major pine species here, and the needle color is slightly yellowish green. Since there are almost no longleaf pines here in GuilfordCounty, if a certain tree is a pine, and if the needles are long and yellowish green, it’s likely a loblolly pine.
Mature loblolly pines typically grow to 80 or 100 feet, with trunks 2-3 feet in diameter, though there are record loblolly pines (such as in the Congaree National Park in South Carolina) that approach 150 feet in height and grow to four feet in diameter).
Loblolly pines shed younger limbs rather cleanly, leaving a very straight and tall trunk which may rise 50 or more feet before the first limbs. This gives a very classic columnar look and feel to properties containing multiple loblolly pines.
On such properties, and in the presence of loblollies growing all around, the sky has a different look, the wind a different sound, and the plants below a different character. Looking up to the sky through a stand of loblollies brings a palette of blue and green, where the blue of the sky looks bluer and the green of the needles looks greener. It is a different way of seeing the sky. The soft light that does filter down through a loblolly upper story is perfect for dogwoods, cherries, azaleas, camellias, and other small trees and shrubs which like the light but not full sun. On a windy day or during a good summer storm a stand of loblollies seem to deepen the sound of the wind even as the columns sway back and forth.
Loblollies tend to put out three needles in a bunch, from 6-9 inches long. The bark of the loblolly pine is dark in color, and on older trees may be one or even two inches thick, visible as thick irregularly shaped plates or chunks with fissures or spaces between. The cones of loblolly pine trees are three to five inches long, conical in shape, covered with sharp spines. When the seeds within the cones are mature, usually in the later summer and fall, they are released by the wind (or by a well placed football or soccer ball kicked straight up into the tree, coming down as inch long “helicopters,” as many kids call them.
There are many places in GuilfordCounty where there are nice stands of loblollies. On Cornwallis Road the school yard of Irving park Elementary has a grove of nice loblollies. There is a nice row of loblollies along the LakeBrandt side of GreensboroDay School. There is a house on Westridge Drive across from the cleaners at WestridgePlaza that has several very large loblollies in the front yard.
The pine with the next longest needle is the white pine. It is easy to tell the white pine from all others. Its limbs radiate out from the trunk in whorls; that is, four of five limbs, usually growing almost perfectly horizontally, come out form the trunk in all directions at the same height, in effect, ringing the trunk with branches. A few feet up the trunk another set of limbs whorl out, and so on. White pines tend to keep their lower limbs a lot longer than loblollies as well, so younger white pines tend to be almost Christmas tree like, and clumps of white pine, typically planted to close together, become very sense. bush like and very dense.
Short leaf pines are also very common throughout GuilfordCounty. It is easy to tell a short leaf pine form the others. First of all, it’s needles are, well, short, hence the name. But the needles of the Virginia and scotch pine are short too. The bark of the short leaf is very distinctive. |
