Longleaf pine - Longleaf Pine Trees

Longleaf pine is the longest lived of the southern pine species. Throughout most of its range, individual longleaf pines can reach 250 years in age (with trees in excess of 450 years old having been documented). To reach that point of old age the life history of longleaf pine can be described in several stages. However, due to the large occurance of small scale disturbances, the forest as a whole is at all times transitioning through at least one of these stages of growth simultaneously. Research has shown that although a longleaf forest looks like and is defined as an "old-growth" stand (i.e., large, scattered, old trees), it still has approximately 2/3 of its trees less then 50 years old.

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