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A mature female big-cone pine (Pinus coulteri) cone, the heaviest pine cone A young female or seed cone on a Norway spruce (Picea abies) Immature male or pollen 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 female cone then opens, releasing the seeds which grow to a young seedling. To fertilize the ovum, the male cone releases pollen that is carried in the wind to the female cone. This is pollination. (Male and female cones usually occur on the same plant.) The pollen fertilizes the female gamete (located in the female cone).
A strobilus (pl.: strobili) is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem.Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to the woody seed strobili of conifers.
The female cones are large and usually woody, 2–60 centimetres (1–24 inches) long, with numerous spirally arranged scales, and two winged seeds on each scale. The male cones are small, 0.5–6 cm (1 ⁄ 4 – 2 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) long, and fall soon after pollination; pollen dispersal is by wind. Seed dispersal is mostly by wind, but some ...
Female cones are woody and sometimes armed to protect developing seeds from foragers. At maturity, the cones usually open to release the seeds. In some of the bird-dispersed species, for example whitebark pine, [15] the seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In others, the seeds are stored in closed cones for many years ...
Encephalartos sclavoi cone, about 30 cm long. Over 1,000 living species of gymnosperm exist. [2] It was previously widely accepted that the gymnosperms originated in the Late Carboniferous period, replacing the lycopsid rainforests of the tropical region, but more recent phylogenetic evidence indicates that they diverged from the ancestors of angiosperms during the Early Carboniferous.
In general, this classification emphasized cone, cone scale, seed, and leaf fascicle and sheath morphology, and species in each subsection were usually recognizable by their general appearance. Pines with one fibrovascular bundle per leaf, (the former subgenera Strobus and Ducampopinus ) were known as haploxylon pines , while pines with two ...
Table Mountain pine typically has long, thick limbs on much of the trunk even in closed canopy stands. [7] Male cones are 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) long. Female cones are sessile and range from 4.2 to 10 centimetres (1.7 to 3.9 in) long. [7] Cone scales are tough and armed with broad, upwardly curving spines. [6]