Pinus palustris

Paul Burnett | April 13, 2009 12:18 PM | Edit

Another good picture of the “grass stage” and some interesting information at http://www.floridata.com/ref/P/pinu_pal.cfm

“Seedling longleaf pines are unique. They show no development of a trunk for the first 3-15 years (average about 5 years) of their lives. Instead they remain in a “grass” stage while they develop a large tap root and root system. During this period, the longleaf pine looks very much like a clump of grass. When the time is right, the young pine bolts upward, as much as 3-5 ft (0.9-1.5 m) in the first year.”

umkomasia | April 13, 2009 12:26 PM | Edit

In fact, this specimen has passed the grass stage and is already bolting upwards.

Miguel | April 13, 2009 10:33 PM | Edit

Most interesting to note how similar Pinus palustris in its grass stage is to specimens of the family Xanthorrhoeaceae ( see: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/c[…]7/004738.jpg ).

Convergent evolution?

Reed A. Cartwright replied to comment from umkomasia | April 14, 2009 12:52 PM | Edit

umkomasia said:

In fact, this specimen has passed the grass stage and is already bolting upwards.

It was only about a foot tall (in October), if I missed the grass stage, then it must have only been a few months out of it.

Corbs | April 23, 2009 8:45 PM | Edit

I was taken aback too by how much it looked like the Australian Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea) too. However, having had a look around the webs, they start to dramatically differ thereafter.

It is quite a spooky thing to have a grass tree in your yard and watch it grow around 1cm a year but every so often shoot out a flower stalk that grows about 3 cm a day! Also spooky is watching them recover what seems almost overnight after a fire.

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