Description

The bark is thick, reddish-brown, and scaly. The leaves are dark green and needle-like, and occur in bundles of mainly three, sometimes two or four, especially in seedlings. They often are twisted and 20 - 45 cm in length. A local race of P. palustris in a cove near Rockingham, North Carolina, have needles up to 24 inches (61 centimeters ) in length. It is one of the two Southeastern U.S. pines with long needles, the other being slash pine.