Hi John: I imagine it is difficult to identify some of your seedlings at this stage. The Virginia Department of Forestry published "Native Trees of Virginia" (124 pages) this summer. This publication includes tree identification info and and a key to common native trees. I think it would be useful for almost anyone since these trees are common to many areas of the country. It includes keys to common native trees, then a cross reference to a page about that tree. Here is what it says about shortleaf and loblolly pines: 6 a. Needles 6 to 9 inches, cones 3 to 6 inches long  Loblolly Pine, pg. 21. b. Needles 8 to 18 inches, cones 6 to 10 inches long  Longleaf Pine, pg. 22. Page 21: "Loblolly pine: Needles: 6 to 9 inches long, pale green, slender and stiff, in bundles of three" 8 a. Needles 3 to 5 inches, dark yellow green, cones 1½ to 2½ inches long  Shortleaf Pine, pg. 20. Page 20: "Shortleaf pine: Needles: 3 to 5 inches, slender, flexible, dark green, in clusters of 2 or 3." This book has been helpful in improving my limited tree identification skills. I downloaded it for free but cannot find a download link now. You can purchase it for $1.00 from the Virginia Dept of Forestry (link below). Here is a link that might be useful: Native Trees of Virginia

As for pests--I have had some problems with sawfly larvae. Two years ago I had them on three of my young white pines. I picked them off--it took three or four tries to get them all. On those trees they have not come back. But this year, suddenly, they began to devastate my shortleafs. I tried picking them off, but after one or two tries, they became so numerous, I had to get a spray. The first one, some kind of organic insecticidal soap, killed a lot, but did not solve the problem. I then got another spray and after three more sprayings, I got the last of them. If I had done nothing, all of them would have been completely defoliated. There were literally thousands of these larvae, and they clustered in bunches of 20 or so as they ate all the needles off the twig ends. I read that this problem is worse when the young trees are growing in a field, amid weeds and brush, as mine are. When these trees get big enough to resist buckrubbing damage, I will mow around them. For now it is good to keep them more or less hidden in the weeds and brush. Of course, I keep them from being shaded. And I have the best ones in wire cages for protection. I also had a terrible problem with the sawflies on my Vanderwolf pine--a kind of white pine cultivar. They were all over this tree and would have completely defoliated it if I had not sprayed. I also had some kind of fungus attacking the needles of my shortleaf pines, but it seems it did little harm. But in the spring before the new growth started, it looked serious. I will see what happens with that this next spring. I hope I will not have to spray for that also. --Spruce

Yea we have an absurd amount of white pine cones here this year as well.... The squirrels are eating them and pooping out bits of sticky goo all over our roof too.... i really wish there would be other native species as common as white pine because they happen not to be my favorite... :/

We have these in a deep purplish/pink color on the forest floor of our property. They grow under the Madrone trees. We have oaks on the property, but these don't grow under them. I loved seeing them come up, but didn't know they may harm the trees. Should we try to knock some of them out? (We don't use poison on anything here) This is the first internet source I have found for any information on these at all - I know I'm not in a similar region as the original post. However, the photo shows an identical plant to the one we have (just a different color). What family of plants do these belong to? Are they a fungi or succulent, or are they in a category of their own? Are they identified by the fact they take their nutrients off of another plant (the roots of the tree)? Thanks.