Loblolly Pine is the most common of the tall, stately pines of the South in the US, that includes the Longleaf & Slash Pines that are very similar species. It is native from all of Delaware down the Atlantic coast and some piedmont to central Florida, covering all of Georgia, Alabama, & Mississippi and a little west into Arkansas & Louisiana, then to east Texas. Its long needles of 6 to 9 inches long are slender and sort of stiff, but soft to touch, and are arranged in bundles of 3. The conical cones are abundant and large to 6 inches long with large, sharp prickles on each scale. Mature bark is reddish brown and in scaly plates. Loblolly usually grows about 40 to 60 feet high, but can grow 90 to 100 feet high with a trunk diameter of 2 to 3 feet across. It is fast growing of at least 2 feet/year. Maybe because it is such an abundantly common tree in central & southern Delaware, with some colonies scattered in all of northern DE, I have not found any nurseries growing it for landscapes there. It is a good landscape tree. Loblolly also a major timber tree in the South, often grown in plantations, and it is the largest provider of pine straw for mulch in the South. Redbud Nursery in southeast Pennsylvania has sold some, and they do alright there as long as the soil is acid, though I don't know the exact highest point between pH of 6.5 to 7.0 to where it can grow well. This species can grow in draining wet soils along creeks and ponds and lakes besides being in dry uplands. One of my favorite trees.

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Arkansas' state tree.

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