Spruce Pine

Why it works here

Let me be honest about this one before anything else, because it is the plant on this site where my own experience and the published range disagree the most. Spruce pine is a Florida native, but its home is the Panhandle and the north end of the peninsula, in cool moist ravines and bottomland hardwood forests. Not sand. Not Stuart. No source I can find documents it growing in zone 10a, and the nearest grower is in Alachua. I have planted it here anyway, and so far it is growing. Why? Because it does something no other pine does: it grows in shade, under an existing canopy, with soft short glossy needles and bark that looks more like an oak than a pine. It is a different texture than slash pine and it fits a woodland garden in a way slash pine never will. Birds and squirrels eat the seed. So the deal is this. If you want one, you are running an experiment with me, and I will say so on the plan. If you want a pine that is guaranteed to belong here, that is slash pine, and it is elsewhere on this site.

Care

Give it moist, acidic soil with organic matter, part shade, and mulch, which is the opposite of what you would do for a slash pine. Water through establishment and in long droughts. Keep it well away from anything salty. It is slow. Do not expect a tree for years.

Common problems

Range. It is a North Florida tree and the summers, the sand, and the alkaline fill here are all against it. I am watching mine. I will not promise you what I have not seen.

Wind. UF's hurricane research put spruce pine at the bottom of the southern pines, with about 38 percent survival after Ivan. That is a brittle tree. Never plant it where it can fall on the house.

Pests when planted out of range. The forestry literature specifically mentions gall mites and tip moths on trees planted outside their native range. That is us.

Fire. Thin bark, no fire tolerance. Not a plant for a prescribed burn property.