History: Slash Pine

Source of version: 31 (current)

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!The Tree
The Slash Pine grows rapidly and is one of the most important and proﬁtable of our southern yellow pines The name "slash" is given the tree because it grows most favorably in low hummocks of swamps called "slashes." It resembles the Ponderosa Pine in many respects although it is not as large a tree.The tree grows 80 to 150 feet in height with a ﬁne high clear trunk 24 to 36 inches in diameter, breast high. The bark is relatively thin, broken into irregular scales, and a reddish-brown to orange color. The needles are 8 to 12 inches long, a dark lustrous green color, with two or three in a bundle forming clusters at the ends of the twigs. The needles of Slash Pine are longer than the Loblolly Pine but shorter than the Longleaf Pine. They remain on the tree for two seasons. The cones are egg shaped three to six inches long and are a glossy leathery brown color, very compact with short spines at the end of each scale of the cone, a peculiar characteristic of the Slash Pine. It is one of the best looking pines and is used to a large extent for ornamental planting and roadside beautiﬁcation. Because this tree thrives best in moist areas it suffers lightly from forest ﬁres but is susceptible to damage from red heart rot. 

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!Common Names in Use
* Slash Pine (Ala., Miss.,Ga., Fla.) 
* Bastard Pine (Fla., Miss., Ala., in part) 
* Cuban Pine 
* Meadow Pine (Fla., eastern Miss. in part)  
* Pitch Pine (Fla.) 
* Saltwater Pine (Fla.) 
* She Pitch Pine (Ga) 
* She Pine (Ga., Fla.)  
* Spruce Pine (southern Ala.) 
* Southern Pine (trade) 
* Swamp Pine (Fla., Miss., Ala. in part) 
* Yellow Slash Pine 

!Growth Range
The growth range of Slash Pine extends from the southern part of South Carolina westward through southern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, and southward through Florida, and is also found in the West Indies and Central America. This tree grows best on low, poorly drained ﬂats near bays and swamps. 

!The Wood
The heartwood is a rich orange to light brown or tan color with moderately thick light yellowish tinged sapwood. It is very heavy, the heaviest of all the pines, very stiff, strong, hard, straight-grained, uniform in texture and very resinous. It has no prominent ﬁgure. It nails hard, glues well and shrinks moderately. 

!Uses
Slash Pine outranks all other southern pines in the production of naval stores, pine oils, etc. When treated with creosote it is used extensively for posts and poles. The wood is used for heavy general construction, ship building, sheathing and other common lumber uses where a high resin content is not objectionable. Considerable quantities of the wood especially of the younger trees are used for paper pulp.

!File References
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History: Slash Pine

Source of version: 31 (current)

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