Longleaf or yellow pine forests once dominated the South, covering 90 million acres from the Atlantic Coastal Plain of southeastern Virginia to the West Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas. Developed in close association with periodic surface fires, longleaf pine formed open park-like stands with grasses on the ground and grew on varied sites and soils, from wet, poorly drained flatwoods to dry deep sandhills. It is the only pine species with a grass stage, during which seedlings resemble clumps of grass while developing an extensive root system. Longleaf forests supported numerous wildlife species, including quail, turkey, and deer. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, almost all virgin longleaf timber was clearcut without regeneration, including in the forest surrounding Bagdad, which at one point was the largest producer of longleaf yellow pine timber and lumber in the world. Today only 4.7 million acres remain, a loss of 95 percent. Also known as yellow, southern yellow, longstraw, heart, or hard pine, longleaf pine is unique to the South, and the remnants of its forests remain among the most diverse ecosystems outside the tropics, with as many as 40 to 50 different plant species in one square meter. Fire remains essential to this ecosystem because many plants depend on it for healthy growth, the needles and leaves of longleaf pine and associated shrubs and grasses contain resins and oils that make them highly flammable, and seeds germinate best when fire clears dense undergrowth and leaves bare mineral soil. Historically, fires burned slowly through the forests for weeks at a time, and today prescribed fire remains an important management tool as public and private landowners and conservation groups restore longleaf pine.