Longleafpine

The photo above was taken on January 22, 2018 in the city of Wilmington North Carolina. This picture displays a group of Long Leaf Pine trees. Long leaf pine trees play a crucial supporting role in many ecosystems. For instance, the Red Cockaded Woodpecker, a now endangered species, relies on the long leaf pines for shelter as they carve their nests into the softened heartwood rot areas of the trees. The long leaf pine trees also provide the Red Cockaded Woodpecker with protection from predators by producing sap which runs over the hole making the entrance harder to access. These trees also provide another source of protection for the woodpeckers from natural disasters like wildfires. While other tress cannot survive the fire, long leaf pines heavily rely on the fire to clear out competitors allowing them to prosper. In fact, long leaf pines adapted their long needles because of these fires. This happened because most wild fires will burn through quickly meaning that only the tops of the needles will be burned off leaving the bottom healthy and making the recovery process easy, compared to other less fortunate plant species.

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