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Conifer cone. 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 ...
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 female cones take 1.5–3 years (depending on species) to mature after pollination, with actual fertilization delayed one year. At maturity the female cones are 3–60 cm long. Each cone has numerous spirally arranged scales, with two seeds on each fertile scale; the scales at the base and tip of the cone are small and sterile, without seeds.
The cones are 6–12 cm (2 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 4 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) long and 4–4.5 cm (1 + 5 ⁄ 8 – 1 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) broad, green or purple ripening pale brown, with about 100–150 scales; the scale bracts are short, and hidden in the closed cone. The winged seeds are released when the cones disintegrate at maturity about 6 months after pollination. [9]
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 male ( pollen ) cones are slender conic, 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in) long and 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) broad and reddish-brown in colour and are lower on the tree than the seed cones. [ 3 ]
The cones are 3–5 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 4 –2 in) long, the scales with a small, fragile prickle that usually wears off before maturity, leaving the cones smooth. Unusually for a pine, the cones normally point forward along the branch, sometimes curling around it. That is an easy way to tell it apart from the similar lodgepole pine in more western ...
The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. [3] In this area it is also known as "yellow pine" or "long leaf yellow pine", although it is properly just one out of a number of ...
The term bristlecone pine covers three species of pine tree (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus, subsection Balfourianae). All three species are long-lived and highly resilient to harsh weather and bad soils. One of the three species, Pinus longaeva, is among the longest-lived life forms on Earth. The oldest of this species is more than 4,800 years ...