Forestry
Champion Trees
Virginia Pine -
(Pinus virginiana Mill.)
The Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana
Mill.) is a member of the Pinaceae, or Pine Family that is not
native to Arkansas. It's western most natural range is in western Tennessee.
They are favored as commercial "Choose and Cut Christmas trees" or "Living
Christmas trees" because they will do well in poor soil and on a variety of soil
types. Virginia pines are short-needled trees with open, broad, irregular
crowns of long spreading branches; more often a shrub. They take shearing well,
and are easily managed on tree farms. The leaves or needles are in bundles of
two that are slightly twisted and flattened, dull green in color, that are
sometimes dyed green to enhance the foliage.
Growing to a maximum height of sixty feet, they
are used principally for lumber and pulpwood. It is one of the hardiest pines
and does well in poor soil and they are drought tolerant. In plant succession,
they are common in old fields as a pioneer after grasses on the Piedmont and
mountain regions, growing rapidly and forming thickets. This pine is later
naturally replaced by more valuable hardwoods.
Cotton Plant, Arkansas, you have done
yourself proud! Billy Nail is the proud owner of the largest Virginia pine
in Arkansas. It is located at 418 North Central street in Cotton Plant.
Virginia pines are one of the most popular "Choose and Cut" or "Living
Christmas trees" that are grown commercially down south. Though not native
to Arkansas, thirty years ago, this one could have been a "Living Christmas
tree" that was planted a few days after Santa made his nightly visit. It
also could just be a different pine tree that some one dug up several
hundred miles east of Cotton Plant, and transplanted.
Discovered by retired Monroe County Cooperative
Extension Service Agent Reggie Talley and Arkansas Forestry Commission
Information and Education Officer Jim Grant earlier in the spring of 2002, this
tree has a (B.I.) Bigness Index of 135. It has a circumference of five feet and
eight inches (trunk diameter of 21.65 inches measured four feet and six inches
from the ground), stands fifty-seven feet tall, and has a crown spread of forty
feet. Congratulations to Billy Nail.
By: Reggie Talley
Retired Monroe County Extension Agent
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