Editing Longleaf pine (section)

==Description==
[[File:Longleaf pine bark.jpg|left|thumb|Close up of longleaf pine bark]]
The bark is thick, reddish-brown, and scaly.<ref name="Bonnicksen2000">{{cite book|author=Thomas M. Bonnicksen|title=America's Ancient Forests: From the Ice Age to the Age of Discovery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diE7u3qX374C&pg=PA234|date=7 February 2000|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-471-13622-4|page=234}}</ref><ref name="Grimm2002">{{cite book|author=William Carey Grimm|title=Illustrated Book of Trees: The Comprehensive Field Guide to More than 250 Trees of Eastern North America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQ7uv7tCSOwC&pg=PT181|date=1 March 2002|publisher=Stackpole Books|isbn=978-0-8117-4164-4|page=181}}</ref> The [[leaf|leaves]] are dark green and needle-like, and occur in bundles of mainly three, sometimes two or four, especially in seedlings. They often are twisted and {{convert|20|-|45|cm|in|abbr=off|frac=4}} in length.  A local [[Race (biology)|race]] of ''P. palustris'' in a cove near Rockingham, North Carolina, have needles up to 24 inches (61 centimeters ) in length.<ref>{{cite book | last1= Coker | first1= William C. Ph.D. | last2= Totten | first2= Henry R. Ph.D. | date= 1945 | title= Trees of the Southeastern States | location= Chapel Hill, No. Carol. | publisher= Univ. No. Carol. Press | page= 19 }}</ref> It is one of the two Southeastern U.S. pines with long needles, the other being [[Pinus elliottii|slash pine]].

The [[conifer cone|cones]], both female seed cones (ovulate strobili) and male pollen cones (staminate [[strobili]]), are initiated during the growing season before buds emerge. Pollen cones begin forming in their buds in July, while seed conelets are formed during a relatively short period of time in August. Pollination occurs early the following spring, with the male cones {{convert|3|-|8|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} long. The female (seed) cones mature in about 20 months from pollination; when mature, they are yellow-brown in color, {{convert|15|-|25|cm|in|abbr=on|frac=4}} long, and {{convert|5|-|7|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} broad, opening to {{convert|12|cm|in|abbr=on|frac=4}}, and have a small, but sharp, downward-pointing spine on the middle of each scale. The [[seed]]s are {{convert|7|-|9|mm|frac=8}} long, with a {{convert|25|-|40|mm|abbr=on|adj=mid|frac=8}} wing.

Longleaf pine takes 100 to 150 years to become full size and may live to be 500 years old. When young, they grow a long [[taproot]], which usually is {{convert|2|-|3|m|ft|abbr=off|frac=2}} long; by maturity, they have a wide spreading lateral root system with several deep 'sinker' roots. They grow on well-drained, usually sandy [[soil]], characteristically in pure stands.<ref name="McArdle1930">{{cite book|author=Richard Edwin McArdle|title=The Yield of Douglas Fir in the Pacific Northwest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dE3jFdjSab0C&pg=RA5-PA7|year=1930|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture|pages=5|quote=Longleaf pine in both the virgin forest and second growth is characteristically a tree of pure stand—one in which 80 per cent or more of the trees are of a single species.}}</ref> 
Longleaf pine also is known as being one of several species grouped as a [[southern yellow pine]]<ref name="Moore2008">{{cite book |author1=Moore, Gerry |author2=Kershner, Bruce |author3=Craig Tufts |author4=Daniel Mathews |author5=Gil Nelson |author6=Spellenberg, Richard |author7=Thieret, John W. |author8=Terry Purinton |author9=Block, Andrew |title=National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America |publisher=Sterling |location=New York |year=2008 |page=75 |isbn=978-1-4027-3875-3}}</ref> or longleaf yellow pine, and in the past as pitch pine (a name dropped as it caused confusion with pitch pine, ''[[Pinus rigida]]'').