How to Identify Bull Pine Trees

Loblolly pine is a species that the “National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees” says has the nickname of bull pine due to the large sizes it can attain. Other names for this species include Arkansas pine, North Carolina pine and old-field pine. The word loblolly is a term that translates loosely into “mud puddle,” describing in many cases the moist ground in which this tree flourishes. The identification of this pine tree hinges on recognizing such aspects of the tree as its needles, bark and cones.

Instructions

1. Look for a pine tree that grows in most of the Deep South in habitats such as floodplains and hilly uplands. The loblolly pine often grows in large numbers together. It exists from as far north as southern New Jersey and into Florida, with western states such as Oklahoma and Texas also having this tree in their borders. The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences website says half of the pine trees in the southeastern states are bull pine.

2. Estimate the size of a bull pine, remembering that mature specimens grow to be as tall as 110 feet. Observe the tree and you will notice it lacks branches on the lower trunk, but that in the upper part of the tree, the limbs form a spreading crown.

3. Measure the needles on bull pine and you will find they are from 4 inches in length to 9 inches long. The needles are evergreen and grow in bundles called fascicles, with three needles in each bundle. The needles will have a blue-green tint and are stiff to the touch. The ends taper to a sharp point and the needles have a contorted appearance to them, as if someone came along and twisted them.

4. Inspect the bark of bull pine, looking for deep furrowed surfaces with wide elongated plates. The bark will be brown to gray and quite thick, as thick as 1 1/2 inches on the older trees. Loblolly pine twigs, on the other hand, are reddish to brown when young and developing.

5. Examine the reddish-brown pine cones on a bull pine. These cones are from 3 to 6 inches long and conical in shape. The cones are abundant on the tree, with the scales tipped with a small prickle. After the cones mature and open up, releasing the seeds, they remain on the tree for several years before finally falling off the branches.

References

• University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences: Florida Forest Trees, Loblolly Pine
• "Trees of North America"; C. Frank Brockman; 1996
• "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees"; Elbert L. Little; 2008