They are very neat with their grass stage. I was reading in "Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States" by Tony Dove and Ginger Woolridge that the Longneedle pine will often stay in the grass stage for years while it grows a taproot up to 8 feet long. I believe it's one of two of the only native pines in America that does this. The other is the variation of the slash pine named Pinus elliottii var. densa. It's actually debated if the P elliotti var densa should or should not be its own species. Personally I think it should since the non variation has 2 or 3 but mostly 3 needles with larger cones and never go through a grass stage while the variation has mostly 2 needles, smaller cones and has the grass like stage.