Photo: Scott Zona, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sand Pine

Pinus clausa

Also called scrub pine, Florida spruce pine, Alabama pine.

Florida's scrub pine, a leaning, bushy tree that stands salt spray and outgrows other pines on deep, dry sand.

EvergreenDrought tolerantSalt tolerantWildlife valueBears young

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 25–40 ft
USDA zones: 7–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, the coast and dry uplands
Native range: Alabama, Florida and Mississippi Also recorded in 3 other states, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Sand pine is a small, crooked pine of the Florida scrub, on dry white-sand ridges left by old dunes and shorelines. It comes in two races. The Ocala sand pine of the peninsula keeps most of its cones shut until a fire opens them. The Choctawhatchee sand pine of the Panhandle and coastal Alabama opens its cones as they ripen. Florida scrub-jays sometimes nest in young trees. Its wild stands keep shrinking as the scrub is cleared for groves and houses. Plant it as a lone specimen on the driest sand of the yard, or to hold bare, poor ground.

Size, growth and what to expect

Sand pine grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Trees planted in trials north of its range grew faster, averaging 33 to 35 feet at 15 years. Most trees stay 25 to 40 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide, though the best sites grow trees of 75 to 85 feet.

It bears cones as young as 5 years. Pollen is shed in winter, from November in south Florida to March in the Panhandle. The cones ripen in September of their second year, and those of the Choctawhatchee race shed their seed from September through November. The cones are 2 to 3.5 inches long and armed with short prickles. Birds and small mammals eat the seed.

It grows wild almost only in Florida, west into Baldwin County, Alabama. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Mississippi and imperiled in Alabama. It has been planted beyond its native range, as on the sandhills of Georgia and South Carolina.

How to grow Sand Pine

Sand pine needs full sun and any soil that drains well, and it does best on deep sand. It stands drought and salt spray well. Where clay lies close under the sand or the sand drains poorly, root rot kills it. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 15 feet apart. Keep it 15 feet or more from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant from late fall through winter, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root collar at the soil line, and firm the sand around the roots. Sow seed outdoors from October to January, a quarter inch deep in bare sand. For spring, hold the seed damp in the refrigerator for two to three weeks first. Seedlings that come up from November to January root fast, and few die. Seed sown in summer seldom survives, since bare sand grows hot enough to kill the seedlings.

Water in long dry spells through the first summer. It needs no pruning, and its dead lower branches hang on until the tree is 20 to 25 years old. Its thin bark leaves even mature trees easily killed by fire.

Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen, but a lone tree tends to set less seed than trees in a group. Ips bark beetles attack trees stressed by drought, crowding or injury, and the sand pine sawfly can strip whole plantings. Ice storms break it, the Ocala race most of all. Mature trees also blow over in storms.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (12)