Photo: Scott Dexter, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Table Mountain Pine

Pinus pungens

Also called hickory pine, prickly pine, mountain pine, bur pine.

A gnarled Appalachian ridge pine that grows like a giant bonsai, its cones armed with hooked spines, for dry, rocky ground in full sun.

EvergreenRareDrought tolerantWildlife valueErosion control

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 20–40 ft
USDA zones: 5–7
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, the Appalachians and dry uplands
Native range: 10 states and the District of Columbia, north to Pennsylvania, south to Georgia and west to Tennessee
List all 11
Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia
Also recorded in 1 other state, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Table Mountain pine grows on the dry, rocky and shaly ridges of the Appalachians, ground too harsh for most trees. Fire renews it, opening its closed cones, clearing the litter and letting in the light its seedlings need. Without fire, oaks and mountain laurel take over its stands except on the driest, most exposed ridges. Across its range it is not reproducing itself well. New Jersey lists it as endangered. Squirrels clip off the cone-bearing twigs to reach the seed, which leaves many of its short, stubby limbs. On steep slopes its stands protect the soil. Plant it on a sunny, rocky bank where little else will grow, and let it age into a gnarled specimen.

Size, growth and what to expect

Table Mountain pine grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. An open-grown tree is bushy and limby, usually 20 to 40 feet tall, and the tallest on record reached about 95 feet. It bears cones at 5 to 7 years old. The oldest tree dated by its rings was 271 years old.

Pollen is shed from late March through April, and the cones ripen in September and October of their second year. The heavy cones, 1.7 to 4.1 inches long, sit in whorls of two to seven, and each scale ends in a stout, curved spine. Many stay shut 5 to 25 years, with seed that stays viable 9 years or more.

It grows wild from central Pennsylvania to northeast Georgia, mostly between 1,000 and 4,000 feet, with outliers east to New Jersey and Delaware. It has also been recorded in one county of northeastern Illinois, where it is not native.

How to grow Table Mountain Pine

Table Mountain pine needs full sun, and it stands less shade than pitch pine or Virginia pine. Give it a lean, acid soil that drains fast, such as rocky, gravelly or sandy ground. It does not grow wild over limestone. 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 in early spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, with the root collar at the soil line. The seed needs no chilling. Sow it in spring, a quarter to half an inch deep, and mulch the bed lightly with straw. Reports on the seed differ widely. One count found 81 percent of the seed viable, while a later study found only about a third viable. Nursery beds have raised usable seedlings from only 19 to 28 percent of the seed.

Water every week or two through the first summer, then let it fend for itself. It needs no pruning. A young tree can sprout again from buds at its base if the top is broken or burned.

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. The southern pine beetle can kill whole stands, and butt rot and heart rot attack older or damaged trees. In some years a cone-boring caterpillar destroys the local seed crop. Heavy ice breaks it badly.

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

Sources (12)