54. PINUS RIGIDA
- 1768 P. rigida Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8.
- 1909 P. serotina Long, in Bartonia, ii. 17 (not Michaux).
Spring-shoots multinodal. Leaves ternate, from 7 to 14 cm. long; resin-ducts medial, or with an occasional internal duct, hypoderm biform. Scales of the conelet abruptly prolonged into a spine. Cones from 3 to 7 cm. long, ovate-conic, symmetrical, persistent, dehiscent at maturity or rarely serotinous; apophyses lustrous tawny yellow, elevated along a transverse keel, the umbo salient and forming the broad base of a slender sharp prickle.
A tree with bright green foliage in spreading tufts. The northern limit of its range is in southwestern New Brunswick, southern Maine, central New Hampshire and Vermont, the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River and central Ohio. It ranges into Pennsylvania and Delaware at low levels and thence over the Alleghanies into northern Georgia. It is associated with P. strobus and P. resinosa and, further south, with P. virginiana. The cones are rarely serotinous, but it is remarkably like P. serotina in many characters, and is therefore placed in this group.
Fig. 292, Cones. Fig. 293, Leaf-fascicle, magnified section through a fascicle, and magnified dermal tissues of the leaf. Fig. 294, Upper part of a tree.
55. PINUS SEROTINA
- 1803 P. serotina Michaux, Fl. Bor. Am. ii. 205.
Spring-shoots multinodal. Leaves ternate, from 12 to 20 cm. long; resin-ducts medial or medial and internal, hypoderm biform. Conelet long-mucronate. Cones from 5 to 7 cm. long, subglobose or short-ovate, symmetrical, persistent, serotinous; apophyses lustrous tawny yellow, slightly elevated along a transverse keel, the umbo forming the broad base of a slender, rather fragile prickle.
This species is confined to low wet lands from southeastern Virginia to northern Florida and central Alabama. It is one of the associated six timber-Pines of the Southern States and the only one of them with serotinous cones. Its wood is of like value with that of P. taeda, the two species being constantly confused by lumbermen. It is never associated with P. rigida, but its resemblance to that Pine is so great that it may be regarded as its serotinous form. Its leaf is longer, its cone usually more orbicular and the prickle weaker.