scrub pine

American  

noun

1. any of several pines, as the jack pine, characterized by a scrubby or irregular manner of growth, usually found in dry, sandy soil.

---

Etymology

Origin of scrub pine

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95

Example Sentences

All the denizens of Thoreau’s Cape Cod, from its scraggly scrub pine trees to its people, exemplify the humility that goes hand-in-hand with danger.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

One of Mashpee’s largest is Santuit Pond, roughly 170 acres of water surrounded by houses set on hills dotted with beech and scrub pine.

From New York Times • Jan. 1, 2023

For some perverse reason, the land there — stony, boggy, sandy, full of scrub pine and poison ivy — has given rise to a surprising number of little nine-holers.

From New York Times • May 23, 2011

Such luminaries as Katharine Cornell, James Cagney, Thomas Hart Benton, Leonard Bernstein and Lillian Hellman have long summered among the island's rolling moors and scrub pine.

From Time Magazine Archive

The crevice burst open into a forest of scrub pine and fir.

From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead