A broadly conical tree 20-30 m tall. Branches ascending. Bark red-brown in broad scales. Buds 5-10 mm long, conical, non-resinous. Young shoots slender, green becoming orange-brown. Leaves in 3's, stiff, sharp-pointed, mostly 15-22 cm long but occasionally longer or shorter, bright green, slightly twisted, sheaths persistent, c. 1-2 cm long. Cones ovoid, 6-13 cm long, yellow-brown, stalkless; scales with a triangular reflexed sharp spine. Seeds mottled dark brown, c. 7 mm long with a wing c. 2 cm long.

Grows naturally mostly on flatlands from sea level to altitudes of 700 m on a range of often poor soil types. A warm climate pine more suited to northern New South Wales and Queensland where it is occasionally grown in plantations on fertile sites or at higher elevations where it is an alternative to the Slash Pine, P. elliottii.

SE North America. Naturalised on the North Island of New Zealand and around some plantations in New South Wales.

An important timber tree especially in the USA.

Small buds; prickly, symmetrical cones. The similar P. echinata Mill., Short-leaf Pine, is occasionally grown in plantations but has smaller cones and needles, also leaves in a mix of 2's and 3's. Other warm-climate forestry species are P. elliottii, Slash Pine, which has longer, thinner leaves 18-28 cm long and glossy nut-brown cones 10-16 cm long, and P. caribaea Morelet, Caribbean Pine, with cones 8-12 cm long, smaller and narrower than P. elliottii, with smaller scales; its leaves are 20-30 cm long in 3's and 3's and 4's mixed.

NSW: Clouds Creek (State Forest c. 25 m in 1976, ptd 1949 and 1951). ACT: Yarralumla (Dunrossil Drive; nsy, rear admin. building); Westbourne Woods. VIC: Beechworth (Queen Victoria Park, 3 trees). TAS: Hobart (Queens Domain, Royal Tasmanian Bot. Gds).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Pinaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.