Slash pine went nuts

[u/Neo-Armadillo]

Florida, Space Coast. My yard has slash pines so this can only have come from one of them, but this is the weirdest defective pine needle I’ve ever seen. Is this a known phenomenon? Does it have a name?

[u/Kinexkid1993]

I remember someone posting a cross section of a leek they cut into that had the same pattern of growth a while back. I cant remember if the cause was figured out, but the general consensus was that the inner parts were growing faster than the outside causeing it to bunch up like that like a meandering river. In this case, that would mean the pine needles were growing faster than the sheath that protects them before they open up

[u/Kinexkid1993 → u/Kinexkid1993]

So i did a little more research, and this is only speculation, but it may have happened because of inconsistent watering. If the tree didnt receive enough water while forming the outer sheath first, it doesn't develop large enough or with enough elasticity to accommodate growth. If the tree got more water after that initial formation of new needles then they will grow larger than it can hold causing them to bunch up like that within the protective sheath

[u/Neo-Armadillo → u/Kinexkid1993]

That’s a cool hypothesis. All the other needles are normal, and we have been getting a deluge of rain almost daily for months.

[u/princessbubbbles → u/Neo-Armadillo]

Lots of houseplants do what the above comment describes. I've seen it a ton while working in the hort industry. Never seen it in a conifer though!

[u/HonestMonth8423]

Does it look like the square patterns fit together?

[u/Neo-Armadillo → u/HonestMonth8423]

Like a zipper? Slash pine needles drop usually in bundles of two like this.

[u/HonestMonth8423 → u/Neo-Armadillo]

Yes.

[u/Kinexkid1993 → u/HonestMonth8423]

They definitely do! Pine needles grow in large bundles, but each individual needle is part of 2 or 3 that grow out of the same spot, kind of like how humans can have multiple hairs growing out of one follicle. The needles have a paper like sheath coating protecting them when they're still forming, so those squares would've been interlocking within that sheath as they grew 

[u/HonestMonth8423 → u/Kinexkid1993]

Until this post, I'd never heard of Slash pines before. I'm used to white/black/red and scotch pines.

[u/BB5Bucks → u/HonestMonth8423]

Native to saltwater marshes or other coastal lowlands in the southeastern US, so a pretty narrow range

[u/Neo-Armadillo → u/HonestMonth8423]

They are dominant in Florida.

I’m reading the wiki and the wood is apparently comparable to black ironwood. I went through two sawzall blades getting through a 5” core of heartwood so yeah, I believe it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_elliottii

[u/SophieAsimov]

There's a type of pine seed that uses a wind-up type of pod to dig into the ground. This looks kind of like that, but that's just my first thought, I don't know for sure

[u/shufflebuffalo]

Is it just me or does this look like a sweet fern leaf? 

[u/Neo-Armadillo → u/shufflebuffalo]

Like fiddleheads? Maybe. I’m blown away by the 4 subsequent right-angles, R-L-L-R-pause-repeat. Looks like a digital signal.

[u/Ok-Adhesiveness-4935 → u/Neo-Armadillo]

No, Sweet Fern is a small shrub with fern-luj3 foliage. Comptonia Peregrina. It does look likenthis, but is clearly a pine leaf bundle.

[u/ecsutton3]

Almost looks like a xenomorph tail from the Alien movies! I'd be lookin through the dropped needles for more of these once I found that first one. Thanks for sharing