The spectral separability of southern pines is a perplexing issue due to limited variance of spectral reflectance in species with similar morphological characteristics. Understory vegetation reflectance may exacerbate the ability to accurately identify various overstory tree species, specifically those of longleaf and loblolly pines in the southeastern US. In this study, identification of target level overstory crowns with varying degrees of understory vegetation cover based on fire return frequency was used to assess the role of understory reflectance on target crown species discernment. Seasonal variations of understory vegetation in late dormant and late growing seasons were compared for disparities in potential reflectance contribution from understory vegetation. Overall, the impact of understory vegetation was considered negligible in the spectral separability of longleaf and loblolly pines based on discriminant analysis results. Classification of WorldView-2 relative spectral profiles resulted in overall accuracies of 92% for dormant season and 96% for growing season imagery.