Other Names: Old-Field Pine, Rosemary Pine, Short Leaf Loblolly Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Yellow Pine

A fast-growing North American native, the Shortleaf Rosemary Pine can add up to 2 feet in height per year. Though it can reach heights over 70 feet in the wild, it might reach 50 to 60 feet tall and 20 to 35 feet wide in the landscape where in full sun it develops a dense, short pyramidal crown when young that broadens with age. It sports short, dark blue-green needles only 3 to 5 inches long in bundles of two, somewhat resembling the foliage of the rosemary plant but on a larger scale. The five year old needles drop once a year so there's never a need to apply mulch beneath this tree or around the plants growing under it. It produces purple and pink cones to 2.5 inches long that open to a copper-brown persisting on the tree for many years. The rugged bark is dark grey to black when young and reddish-brown to dark brown when mature, furrowed into large, irregular, flat plates. Though the Shortleaf Rosemary Pine is an important timber tree whose wood is used for pulp, plywood and general construction as well as in the paper industry, it is a very hardy, long-lived and easy-to-grow attractive specimen or grouping in the residential landscape and is perfect for quick, evergreen reforestation of bare land. The Shortleaf Rosemary Pine is sure to be visual presence in your landscape and acid-loving plants such as Azaleas and Camellias thrive under it.

The Shortleaf Rosemary Pine supports Imperial Moths and the Eastern Pine Elfin butterfly and the seeds from the cones feed pheasant, turkey, quail and squirrels, who also use the tree branches for nesting. 

Growing 50 to 60 feet tall and 20 to 35 feet wide in the landscape, the Shortleaf Rosemary Pine is ideal for use as a specimen, in groupings, or to forest or reforest bare land where it will generate its own mulch by way of an annual needle drop of its three year old needles. Azaleas, camellias and other acid-loving plants grow great under this tree. A fine addition to conifer gardens, native gardens, wildlife gardens and azalea, rhododendron and camellia gardens.  

Suggested Spacing:  15 to 20 feet apart for groves; 40 or more feet apart for space between trees