Piney South

We North Americans in the lands commonly referred to as either Midwest (grumble) or Great Lakes tend to think of pines as something of a northern tree, at least those of us in the middle latitudes between the lands of cold and warm.  Indeed, west of the Appalachians and east of the Rockies, native pines are largely missing from the landscape south of the Great Lakes, throughout most of the prairies, and until one gets into at least the edge of the South.  The same is not true for the coasts of the continent, where pines can be found from the Arctic treeline down well into the tropics.  Many botanists, in fact, will point out that the greatest living diversity of pines and probable place of origin for many ice-age surviving species is in Mexico, hardly northern by most standards.  Some pines, in fact, only like areas that are warm most of the year if not outright hot and dry.  Only one species of pine, the noble and scraggly Jack Pine (Pinus Banksiana), even makes it to the northern limit of trees.

Still, where once central North America used to have a relative dearth of things pine, one is likely to run across some thanks to a modern landscaping fetish for durable, mass-produced coniferous evergreens.  Sometimes this results in lovely drifting plantings of the majestic and sacred Eastern White Pine (Pinus Strobus) which seems to be popular well into Nebraska and southwards wherever the climate will be merciful.  More often than not, however, the Austrian, or Black Pine (Pinus Nigra) gets slammed into tight groupings to serve as an exotic windbreak far from its happy mountain home in the northern Mediterranean higher elevations.  This is a shame, because we have so many wonderful pines available for use here that can take hot summers rather well.  Anyway, I digress.  How about those hot summers?

Just off of Exit 35 on I-26 near Roebuck, South Carolina.  That there (and those behind) is a Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda), and if you spend any time at all in the South you will come across more of them than you can imagine.

You see, the South gets a lot of rain, but in the dry times, even while it is more humid than should be permissible for decent living, that Sun of ours tends to bake the landscape so that something Carolina feels more like something Texas.  There are oaks for that, to be sure, but pines can handle the rough stuff even better.  Drive anywhere south of the Potomac or the Ohio and pines will never be far away.  Drive further along into, say, Tennessee or North Carolina, and they might be all you see for miles upon miles in seemingly pure stands (albeit with fun, acid loving surprises thriving in the partial shade and sheltered soils like azaleas, magnolias, grasses, and blueberries... and <swoon> palmettos).  I-95, from Richmond nearly all the way to Miami, is pretty much miles and miles of pine scenery, and let me tell you, it smells amazing.  Come along the next few posts to take a wonderful look at some of our southern pine friends.