# Table Mountain Pine (Pinus pungens)

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

Also called hickory pine, prickly pine, mountain pine, bur pine. Category: Uncommon Yard Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/table-mountain-pine/

![Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens) gnarled tree on a rocky overlook above the Blue Ridge valleys](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/table-mountain-pine-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Scott Dexter, CC BY-SA 2.0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APinus_pungens_at_Ravens_Roost%2C_Blue_Ridge_Parkway%2C_Virginia.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 20 to 40 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 5 to 7
- 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 (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
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Traits: Evergreen, Rare, Drought tolerant, Wildlife value, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

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.

## Sources

- [USDA Forest Service, Silvics of North America: Table Mountain Pine, Della-Bianca 1990](https://research.fs.usda.gov/silvics/table-mountain-pine)
- [USDA Forest Service, Fire Effects Information System: Pinus pungens, Reeves 2007](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/tree/pinpun/all.html)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008): Pinus chapter, Krugman and Jenkinson](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Pinus.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 2: Pinus pungens](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=233500949)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Pinus pungens](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/pinus-pungens/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Pinus pungens](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PIPU5)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: Table Mountain pine](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=114)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Pinus pungens](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/pinus/pinus-pungens/)
- [Virginia Tech, Eastern OLDLIST of maximum tree ages: Pinus pungens](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/olds/detail.cfm?genus=Pinus&species=pungens)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Pinus pungens](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.131783/Pinus_pungens)
- [New Jersey Natural Heritage Program: List of Endangered Plant Species and Plant Species of Concern, January 2024](https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/parksandforests/njplantlist.pdf)
- [American Conifer Society: Pinus pungens](https://conifersociety.org/conifers/pinus-pungens/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for insects: the beetles, wasps, cicadas and fireflies that everything else eats](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-insects/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for butterflies and moths: host plants first, nectar second](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-butterflies-and-moths/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Table Mountain Pine, add ?species=table-mountain-pine with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=table-mountain-pine&zone=5&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Table Mountain Pine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=table-mountain-pine): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=table-mountain-pine
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Table Mountain Pine is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=table-mountain-pine
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Table Mountain Pine needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=table-mountain-pine:2
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Table Mountain Pine flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.