We’ve had a number of mysterious pine tree species in this column, and here is another. There’s always a new pine species to learn about: after all, there are about 100 species worldwide.

This one is growing in a small park not far from my house, in the Shandon area of Columbia, in my old neighborhood. Around here it is a common native species, and can be seen just about all over town, and for that matter, just about anywhere else in South Carolina (mostly though, in the piedmont counties). Now, you probably have this very handsome tree growing not far from where you live, as it is widespread in the southeast, extending from eastern Texas, and Arkansas and Missouri, to the Florida panhandle, and then north. It is frequently found in the New Jersey pine barrens, and may reach its northern limit on Staten Island (so said the excellent Harvard dendrologist Charles S. Sprague in 1933, in his famous “Manual of the Trees of North America”.)

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John Nelson is the retired curator of the A.C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.

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