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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 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).
It is usually dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate trees, though occasional individuals bear cones of both sexes. The male (pollen) cones are oblong and cucumber-shaped, 4 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) long at first, expanding to 8–12 cm (3– 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) long by 5–6 cm (2– 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) broad at pollen release. It is wind ...
The trees are mostly dioecious, with male and female cones found on separate trees, [4] though occasional individuals are monoecious or change sex with time. [5] The female cones, usually high on the top of the tree, are globose , and vary in size among species from 7 to 25 centimetres (3 to 10 in) in diameter.
The female (seed) cones mature in about 20 months from pollination; when mature, they are yellow-brown in color, 15–25 cm (6– 9 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) long, and 5–7 cm (2– 2 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) broad, opening to 12 cm (4 + 3 ⁄ 4 in), and have a small, but sharp, downward-pointing spine on the middle of each scale.
It is usually monoecious with male and female cones on the same tree; the pollen cones are long and slender, up to 20 cm (8 in) long and 1 cm (3 ⁄ 8 in) broad; the seed cones are oval, up to 25 cm (10 in) long and 14–16 cm (5 + 1 ⁄ 2 – 6 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) broad.
The cones are stout and heavy, typically 8–15 cm (3.1–5.9 in) long and broad, and contain large, hard-shelled, but edible, pine nuts. [4] Like all pines, its needles are clustered into 'fascicles' that have a particular number of needles for each pine species; in the Torrey pine there are five needles in each fascicle.