Southern pine, planted on more than 32 million acres in the southeastern U.S., ranks in the top four crops in the United States in terms of farm-gate value. Southern pine has long been an economic mainstay in Florida, and its germplasm (which is the store of genetic material for this essential crop) is the fastest growing germplasm resource in the U.S. and southern hemisphere.

The UF/IFAS southern pine breeding program was initiated in the 1950s to breed fast-growing trees with straight stems and strong disease resistance, enabling Florida growers to produce large quantities of high-quality wood faster. The breeding program was the first to use modern statistical methods to analyze the genetic control of traits and rank for selection. UF/IFAS pine breeders have shortened the southern pine breeding cycle to make it more efficient, and they are now pioneering the use of molecular methods to accelerate breeding.

The UF/IFAS Cooperative Forest Genetics Research Program (CFGRP) developed a highly advanced crop of slash pine that is grown widely in North Florida and southern Georgia. The genetic material for nearly all of Florida’s four million acres of planted pine came from CFGRP selections.