In the northwest, "pitch" usually comes from a deceased ponderosa pine that most usually was flash burned in a forest fire. The stuff literally smells like a cross between gas and diesel. You can light it with a match. We use it for kindling to get our fires going.
Funny thing about trees and fire, some need fire to reproduce while others use it to cull the weak and diseased.
In the south the long leaf pine stays short and scubby when it first comes up. It looks more like a weed or some stunted something for a few years until it gets it's tap root established. While short, the fire sort of burns over it, then when the tap root is right, in short order it shoots up a long skinny pole to get above the fire. People used to burn out the swamps and pine forest to keep them healthy and free of insects, snakes, varmits etc....now you can't.
