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Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), or big-cone pine, is a conifer in the genus Pinus of the family Pinaceae.Coulter pine is an evergreen conifer that lives up to 100 years. [2] It is a native of the coastal mountains of Southern California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico, occurring in mediterranean climates, where winter rains are infrequent and summers are dry with ...
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.
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.
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 areas of North America. The cones on many mature trees are serotinous. They open when exposed to intense heat, greater than or equal to 50 °C (122 °F). [16]
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 leaves snap cleanly when bent; this character, stated as diagnostic for red pine in some texts, is however shared by several other pine species. The cones are symmetrical ovoid, 4–6 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 2 – 2 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) long by 2.5 cm (1 in) broad, and purple before maturity, ripening to nut-blue and opening to 4–5 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 2 –2 in ...
Mature Pinus pinea (stone pine); note umbrella-shaped canopy: Pollen cones of Pinus pinea (stone pine) A red pine (Pinus resinosa) with exposed roots: Young spring growth ("candles") on a loblolly pine: Monterey pine bark: Monterey pine cone on forest floor: Whitebark pine in the Sierra Nevada: Hartweg's pine forest in Mexico