# Florida evergreen



## farmerted (Dec 21, 2012)

View attachment 20406
anybody what kind of tree this is, growing zones

View attachment 20407
detail, with bald eagle

pics taken south of Tampa


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

It's Longleaf Pine, Pinus palustris. 

Martin


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## Fla Gal (Jul 14, 2003)

Martin, with all due respect - which you richly deserve - for the first time in over ten years I have to disagree with you. Pinus palustris has a different growth pattern from the trees in the pictures. Pinus palustris growth habit isn't this symmetrical with such small caliper branches.

Farmerted, does the tree in the second picture have two tree tops coming from the same trunk? It appears as though it does. Norfolk Island pines commonly grow that way. These trees are sold as table top Christmas trees and people that buy them sometimes plant them rather than let them die. They're not native to Florida and are very messy if not kept up after. I don't find them too disagreeable but I'd rather have an orange or lemon tree taking up valuable space. 

Longleaf Pine - Pinus palustris:
http://www.floridata.com/ref/p/pinu_pal.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_palustris

Norfolk Island Pine -Araucaria heterophylla
http://www.floridata.com/ref/a/arau_het.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_heterophylla


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Look at the length of the needles in comparison to the size of the eagle perched on top. Not many pines have needles half the length of an American bald eagle.

Martin


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## farmerted (Dec 21, 2012)

if it helps, tree has to be 100 feet tall. I saw a bunch of them most of them had just one trunk.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Could also be a Loblolly, P. taeda. That also has long needles which sweep upward like that.

Martin


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## Fla Gal (Jul 14, 2003)

Martin, if you look at the width of the "needles" compared to the eagle, the needles are way too thick. Look at the needles, they're about one eighth, in diameter, the size of the eagles legs. That's too large a needle for the tree to be a longleaf pine. The "needles" are the tips of the branches that are composed of many smaller needles. The needles of a longleaf pine are individual and much smaller in diameter than an eagle's talon. These trees aren't loblolly either.

Pinus taeda, loblolly pine, looks nothing like the trees in the above pictures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda

Farmerted, Norfolk Island pines can get up to 200 feet tall so 100 feet isn't unusual. My next door neighbor has two of these trees in her yard. Both of them have double tops. They're about 100 feet tall. I've seen others around here too. The peregrine falcons like to sit in the tops of them to scope out the food situation. It's too late tonight (dark) but I'll post a picture of them tomorrow. By the way those are nice pictures and it must have been a thrill to see the bald eagle.


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## smalltime (Jan 26, 2007)

Araucaria heterophylla, Norfolk Pine, Norfolk Island Pine.. IMO


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

The needles are clusters. With a strong glass, even those which appear to be singles are multiples. Find a 100' evergreen from the SE with upsweeping needles that long and growing in clusters and there aren't many in my books. Longleaf and Loblolly are the only ones that I can find with those qualities. 

Martin


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## Fla Gal (Jul 14, 2003)

Martin, you're right in your research of pines of the southeast but Norfolk Island "Pine" is a misnomer. It's not actually a pine. The trees are an introduced species and not native to this country. That's probably why you can't find it in your books. Yes, the needles are upsweeping but there are many small needles on the multiple fingers at the end of the branch, whereas a pine tree has one bunch of needles at the end of each branch that has multiple needles.


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## farmerted (Dec 21, 2012)

Fla Gal said:


> By the way those are nice pictures and it must have been a thrill to see the bald eagle.


Thanks, nice boat trip in lemon bay, by Englewood. 

I actually get to see bald eagles all the time in the winter, I live 2 miles from where the Missouri river dumps into the Mississippi river, and see them on my drive to work almost daily. Saw 3 two days ago.


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## Fla Gal (Jul 14, 2003)

Ted, Lemon Bay is about 40 miles south of me. It's so densely populated in this area that Bald Eagles are few and far between. I saw two flying over my place 3 or 4 months ago. They appeared to be a parent teaching its young one to fly. Lucky you that you get to see them almost daily.

Back on topic:

Martin, I hope this helps clear this up for you.

Today has been overcast all day so the first picture of the Norfolk Island pines is a little dark but you can see the symmetry of the branches with the "needles" upsweeping.

I've been fighting with the new format on getting the pictures to show and it's going to take longer than I have to figure it out tonight. I'm posting the links to the four pictures.

This picture is of the two double top trees in the neighbors yard.
http://www.use.com/7a61f0c79b9e3ecf7fa8

This picture is of the "needles" at the end of the branches. I have fairly large hands which are right at four inches from side to side. That should help with the perspective.
http://www.use.com/4b37b27b424de5e469cd

This picture is of a stand of Longleaf pines behind the neighbors house. The Direct TV dish was left in the picture for perspective. The branches have very little symmetry
http://www.use.com/9dcb6cef32f01e43908e

This picture is as close a shot as I could get with the zoom but shows the longleaf pine needles real well. For those of you that are wondering, the tree behind the pine is a cocos plumosa - aka - Queen palm.
http://www.use.com/17acb3e4ee4c82a4dc7a


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

I have 90 acres of longleaf pine plantation and 80 more acres with scattered slash (pinus elliottii), sand (pinus clausa), and loblolly (pinus taeda). The pix in the OP look nothing like my trees; none of the 4 I list have such a branching pattern and uniform branch length. LLP shed lower branches if they are crowded, like in a plantation, or crawl and twist in a wide pattern when out in the middle of a field. 

However, with Tampa being at the extreme southern range of LLP and near the ocean, that *might* cause some different growth patterns. Tampa is more likely to have Slash Pine, but again, in my experience, they don't look like that.


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Nice Eagle photos for sure!!
But its not a longleaf pine, or a slash pine, or loblolly pine. That the needles turn up like that is curious. Just wondering what specie it actually is, it does look like a conifer of some type.


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## farmerted (Dec 21, 2012)

foxfiredidit said:


> Nice Eagle photos for sure!!
> But its not a longleaf pine, or a slash pine, or loblolly pine. That the needles turn up like that is curious. Just wondering what specie it actually is, it does look like a conifer of some type.


another descriptor that may help, unlike most pine trees the bottom branches were not any longer than the upper ones. It pretty much looked cylindrical, same width the entire length. Evergreen for sure.


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