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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.
Pollination occurs early the following spring, with the male cones 3–8 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 4 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 4 in) long. 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 ...
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 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 ...
Once the pine cones are collected, they're brought to a network of nurseries, where the seeds are extracted and grown into seedlings. One million seedlings will plant about 4,500 acres of new forest.
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).
Young female cone Pinus sylvestris forest in Sierra de Guadarrama, central Spain. Pinus sylvestris is an evergreen coniferous tree growing up to 35 metres (115 feet) in height [4] and 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in trunk diameter when mature, [5] exceptionally over 45 m (148 ft) tall and 1.7 m (5 + 1 ⁄ 2 ft) in trunk diameter on very productive sites.
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