densa Pinus elliottii, commonly known as slash pine,[2][3] is a conifer tree native to the Southeastern United States.

The cones are glossy red-brown, 5–15 cm (2.0–5.9 in) in length, with a short (2–3 mm or 0.079–0.118 in), thick prickle on each scale.

Its wood has an average crush strength of 8,140 lb/in2 (56.1 MPa), which exceeds many hardwoods such as white ash (7,410 lb/in2) and black maple (6,680 lb/in2).

[8] Slash pine generally grows better in warm, humid areas where the average annual temperature is above 17 °C (63 °F), with extreme ranges from −18 to 41 °C (0 to 106 °F).

Native Americans burned land to improve grass growth for grazing and visibility for hunting.

[15] When European settlers arrived in the New World, they brought new diseases that severely diminished the Native American populations.

For example, in the northern range for slash pine, forests can convert from mesic flatwoods[17] to denser mixed-hardwood canopies with trees such as oaks, hickory, and southern magnolia.

Fire is also used to prevent "fuel" buildup, the highly flammable plants such as grasses and scrub under the canopy that could burn easily in a wildfire.

[18] Risks such as smoke, air quality, and residual particulate matter in the environment pose safety issues for controlled burns near homes and businesses.

[12] This obligate parasitic pathogen is notorious for infecting young trees in newly planted areas within the first few years of growing.

The pine industry was still rather new at the time of this initial outbreak, so many newly planted forests had large-scale mortality because the trees were not yet old enough to be resilient to the disease or harvested.

fusiforme is heteroecious, requiring two different plant hosts for reproduction, and is macrocyclic, meaning it contains all five spore stages typical for rust infections: basidiospores, teliospores, urediniospores, aeciospores, and spermatia.

[23] Understanding the climate conditions that can lead to rust outbreaks is an important component for management strategies, but this was not well understood in the early decades of this epidemic.

Even though we have seen newer genetic work from seedling nurseries that has helped loblolly and slash pine become more resilient to fusiform rust,[12] it is not always the case that landowners want to or can afford to buy the genetically modified seedlings so there are a couple of ways to help reduce the possibility of fusiform rust infected trees.

[25] When loblolly pine reach around the age of eight years old you can use more fertilization and forest prescriptions because at this time fusiform rust is not as likely to infect the main stem.

Due to oaks being the alternate host for fusiform rust, where it lives out three of its spore lifecycles, it is a good idea to remove any hardwoods that are adjacent to your loblolly stand.

When it was first described, disease levels were low until the 1970s, when a massive epidemic of pitch canker caused mass tree mortality in Florida slash pine.

[23] Some hypotheses suggest that the pathogen may have originated in Mexico and was then introduced in Florida and later transmitted to California on diseased seed.

[27] Many reports describe the pathogen as endemic to Florida,[28] likely because the disease was introduced a long time therefore the population has become more diverse.

[23][30][26][27] Cankers or lesions that form on the trunks can turn the bark yellow or dark brown and cause resin to exude.

[26] The severity of the disease depends on weather conditions and may require moisture and insect wounds or hail to infect the trees.

Some insects such as bark beetles, spittle bugs, weevils,[28] pine tip moths, and needle midges may vector the disease into the tree.

[30] Fungus species Thozetella pinicola was found on leaf litter of Pinus elliottii Engelm.