Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Loblolly Pine Forest Plantation

Colloquial Name: Loblolly Pine Plantation

Hierarchy Level:  Cultural Subtype

Type Concept: This association represents young, monospecific planted stands of Pinus taeda. Due to the commercial value of this species, this type is widely distributed across much of the southeastern United States from the Interior Highlands to the Coastal Plain, including areas outside the natural range of the species. The core concept of stands attributable to this type are those which support dense, often perfect rows of planted Pinus taeda or otherwise dense, young stands which are established, managed, and/or maintained for the extraction of forest products (usually pulpwood). In most cases these stands support almost no other tree species in the overstory. Understory composition and density can vary widely depending upon location, management history, and stand age. Stands are typically established with mechanical planting, but may also be established through other means. This association rarely exceeds 20-40 years of age on most timberlands. Excluded from this association are plantation stands which have "broken up" with age or thinning to approximate a more natural structure. Dense planting in rows, if successful, tends to result in nearly complete canopy closure which persists until the stand has either been regenerated or transitions into a different association. Herbaceous ground cover of any kind tends to be sparse due to reduction during site preparation, the typically dense canopy cover, and to the fact that many young plantations are infrequently burned at best.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: At Arnold Air Force Base, Coffee and Franklin counties, Tennessee, Pinus taeda is near the edge of its putative natural range (Burns and Honkala 1990a) and was apparently absent prior to being planted there between 1945 and 1950 on abandoned agricultural land and along roadsides. Older plantings have not been intensively managed, and many have become "modified" vegetation (e.g., CEGL007109) and are no longer regarded as plantations. More recently (1998-2001) some of these older pine stands have been harvested and replaced with true Pinus taeda plantations. Pinus taeda also invades seasonally wet hardwood depressions, but these stands remain recognizable as to their natural identity (e.g., CEGL007364). Associations occur as plantations and on old fields on Kisatchie and Sumter national forests and after blowdowns on the Kisatchie. South Carolina information after Jones et al. (1981b). In the Coastal Plain of South Carolina, there are mature loblolly plantations, often with Prunus serotina in the understory, that have been prescribed burned (based on seven plots at Savannah River Site) - such stands are presumably better covered under ~Pinus taeda - Liriodendron tulipifera - Liquidambar styraciflua Ruderal Forest Alliance (A3231)$$. Plantations occur in obvious rows in the aerial photos of the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available