![\"[Bolting](\"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/pictures\/2024-05-14--fruits-vegetables-swamp\/20240514_095822.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nBolting longleaf pine tree<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nLongleaf pines, Pinus palustris<\/em>, have an interesting life cycle,\r\nfrom big seeds with wings that only sprout on bare soil,\r\nto grass stage that looks like a clump of grass 18 inches in diameter\r\nand can stay that way for years if not weeded while a root goes down,\r\nto this bolting stage with the trunk extending,\r\nto sapling and then tree stage.\r\n \r\nThe furry-looking stuff up top is the candle it grew just this spring,\r\nabout two feet long.\r\n \r\nA mature longleaf can grow 100 feet tall in about 100 years,\r\nand can live more than 300 years.\r\n \r\nYou don’t see many mature ones these days, because while they used to be\r\nthe main forest from southern Virginia to eastern Texas along the U.S. coastal plain,\r\n98% of them were cut down for ship masts and lumber.\r\n \r\nIn the few scraps of longleaf pine forest that are left, such as on my land that my grandfather bought in 1921, species diversity is greater than anything outside a tropical rainforest.\r\n \r\nMost of the diversity is in the undergrowth such as you see in this picture.\r\n \r\nYes, this area needs to be burned.\r\nWeather and time permitting, it will be this winter.\r\n \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bolting longleaf pine tree. Bolting longleaf pine tree Longleaf pines, Pinus palustris, have an interesting life cycle, from big seeds with wings that only sprout on bare soil, to grass stage that looks like a clump of grass 18 inches in diameter and can stay that way for years if not weeded while a […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[70,6,60,36],"tags":[3,23,5,3444,2,2760,502],"class_list":["post-9435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-longleaf","category-okra-paradise-farms","category-plants","category-silviculture","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-longleaf-pine","tag-lowndes-county","tag-okra-paradise-farms","tag-pinus-palustris"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-2sb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9435"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9436,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions\/9436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}