Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A mature female big-cone pine (Pinus coulteri) cone, the heaviest pine cone A young female cone on a Norway spruce (Picea abies) Immature male cones of Swiss pine (Pinus cembra) A conifer cone, or in formal botanical usage a strobilus, pl.: strobili, is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants, especially in conifers and cycads.
The trees' pollen cones appear in April and mature in September or October. [17] The cones require fifteen months to mature, [18] and the cones fall 17 to 18 months after pollination in late January to early March from the coast to the current Bunya Mountains. When there is heavy rainfall or drought, pollination may vary. [19]
Stone pine in Brissago, on Lake Maggiore, Switzerland. The stone pine is a coniferous evergreen tree that can exceed 25 metres (80 feet) in height, but 12–20 m (40–65 ft) is more typical. In youth, it is a bushy globe, in mid-age an umbrella canopy on a thick trunk, and, in maturity, a broad and flat crown over 8 m (26 ft) in width. [2]
The seed cones are green, 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in) long and 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) in diameter, and mature about 18–20 months after wind pollination. They disintegrate at maturity to release the seeds which are small and brown, thin and papery with a wing around the edge to aid wind-dispersal. [ 3 ]
The cones take from four months to three years to reach maturity, and vary in size from 2 to 600 millimetres (1 ⁄ 8 to 23 + 5 ⁄ 8 in) long. In Pinaceae, Araucariaceae, Sciadopityaceae and most Cupressaceae, the cones are woody, and when mature the scales usually spread open allowing the seeds to fall out and be dispersed by the wind.
The cones thus grow over a two-year (26-month) cycle, so that newer green and older, seed-bearing or open brown cones are on the tree at the same time. Open cone with empty pine nuts. The seed cones open to 6–9 cm (2 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) broad when mature, holding the seeds on the scales after opening.
The cones are ovoid, massive, 15–27 cm (6– 10 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) long and 8–14 cm (3 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) broad and up to 2 kg (4.4 lb) weight when closed, green at first, ripening yellow-brown when 26–28 months old, with very thick, woody scales, typically 30–60 fertile scales.
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus Pinus (/ ˈ p aɪ n ə s /) [2] of the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae.. World Flora Online accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as current, with additional synonyms, [3] and Plants of the World Online 126 species-rank taxa (113 species and 13 nothospecies), [4] making it ...