Pinus elliottii
Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 4: 186, plates 1–3. 1880.
Trees to 30m; trunk to 0.8m diam., straight to contorted; crown conic, becoming rounded or flattened. Bark orange to purple-brown, irregularly furrowed and cross-checked into large, irregularly rectangular, papery-scaly plates. Branches spreading to ascending; twigs stout (to ca. 1cm thick), orangebrown, aging darker brown, rough-scaly. Buds cylindric, silvery brown, 1.5–2cm; scale margins fringed. Leaves 2 or 3 per fascicle, spreading or ascending, persisting ca. 2 years, 15–20 (–23) cm × 1.2–1.5mm, straight, slightly twisted, pliant, yellow to blue-green, all surfaces with stomatal lines, margins finely serrulate, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; sheath 1–2cm, base persistent. Pollen cones cylindric, 30–40mm, purplish. Seed-cones maturing in 2 years, falling the year after seed-shed, single or in pairs, symmetric, lanceovoid before opening, ovoid or ovoid-cylindric when open, (7–) 9–18 (–20) cm, light chocolate brown, on stalks to 3cm; apophyses lustrous (as if varnished), slightly raised, strongly cross-keeled; umbo central, depressed-pyramidal, with short, stout prickle. Seeds ellipsoid, oblique-tipped; body 6–7mm, dark-brown; wing to 20mm.
Distribution
Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., S.C., in subtropical and warm temperate areas worldwide
Discussion
Varieties 2 (native only in the flora).
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Seedlings essentially without grass stage, buds thus scattered on the stem; leaves mostly in 3s, sometimes in 2s on same shoot; resin canals 3-5 per leaf; base of open cone ± truncate. | Pinus elliottii var. elliottii |
| 1 | Seedlings tending toward a grass stage, buds thus crowded on contracted stems; leaves mostly in 2s, sometimes in 3s on same shoot; resin canals 3-9 per leaf; base of open cone rounded. | Pinus elliottii var. densa |
"relatively thin" is not a number.