Pine Plywood is softwood, but commercially they may be designated as soft pines or hard pines. Soft pines, such as white, sugar, and piñon pines, have relatively soft timber, needles in bundles of five (less commonly, one to four), stalked cones with scales lacking prickles, and little resin. Their wood is close-grained, with thin, nearly white sapwood; the sheaths of the leaf clusters are deciduous, and the leaves contain a single fibrovascular bundle. Hard pines, such as Scotch, Corsican, and loblolly pines, have relatively hard timber, needles in bundles of two or three (rarely, five to eight), cone scales with prickles, and large amounts of resin. Their wood is coarse-grained and usually dark-coloured, with pale, often thick sapwood; the sheaths of the leaf clusters are persistent, and the leaves have two fibrovascular bundles.