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45-510: The rock mount is covered by pine trees and bushes on the north side, while on the south side, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea , there are only rocks. In the intermediate areas there are bushes and grasses that are quite characteristic for the dry Mediterranean climate . The mount is famous for the rock formation on its south-western slope, known as la cara del moro ("the moor's face"). The medieval fortress of Alicante,

90-464: A strobilus , pl. : strobili , is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants, especially in conifers and cycads . They are also called, according to the relevant genus, cypress cone , fir cone , pine cone , spruce cone , etc. They are usually woody, and variously conic, cylindrical, ovoid, to globular, and have scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, but can be fleshy and berry -like. The cone of Pinophyta (conifer clade) contains

135-446: A central axis are microsporophylls (modified leaves). Under each microsporophyll is one or several microsporangia ( pollen sacs). The female cone ( megastrobilus , seed cone , or ovulate cone ) contains ovules which, when fertilized by pollen, become seeds. The female cone structure varies more markedly between the different conifer families, and is often crucial for the identification of many species of conifers. The members of

180-446: A closed, damp cone of suitable size is inserted into a narrow-mouthed bottle and allowed to open upon drying. Cone cows are traditional homemade toys , made by children using material found in nature. The most common design is a spruce or pine cone with sticks or matches for legs, which can easily be attached by forcing them between the cone scales. Playing with cone cows often includes building an animal enclosure from sticks. For

225-474: A harvested pine cone from some string outside to measure the humidity of the air. Members of the Araucariaceae ( Araucaria , Agathis , Wollemia ) have the bract and seed scales fully fused, and have only one ovule on each scale. The cones are spherical or nearly so, and large to very large, 5–30 cm diameter, and mature in 18 months. For most species they disintegrate at maturity, to release

270-481: A highly modified branchlet . On the upper-side base of each seed scale are two ovules that develop into seeds after fertilization by pollen grains. The bract scales develop first, and are conspicuous at the time of pollination; the seed scales develop later to enclose and protect the seeds, with the bract scales often not growing further. The scales open temporarily to receive pollen, then close during fertilization and maturation, and then re-open again at maturity to allow

315-564: A means to evaluate soil fertility and vigour of the trees. The bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in "pseudo whorls", actually a very tight spiral but appearing like a ring of branches arising from the same point. Many pines are uninodal, producing just one such whorl of branches each year, from buds at the tip of the year's new shoot , but others are multinodal, producing two or more whorls of branches per year. Pines have four types of leaf : Pines are monoecious , having

360-536: A separate family (Taxodiaceae) in the past. In most of the genera, the cones are woody and the seeds have two narrow wings (one along each side of the seed), but in three genera ( Platycladus , Microbiota and Juniperus ), the seeds are wingless, and in Juniperus , the cones are fleshy and berry -like (known as galbuli ). The cones and seeds of Sciadopitys (the only member of the family) are similar to those of some Cupressaceae, but larger, 6–11 cm long;

405-410: A traditional part of the arts and crafts of cultures where conifers are common. Examples of their use includes seasonal wreaths and decorations, fire starters, bird feeders, toys, etc. An intriguing derivation of the impossible bottle mechanical puzzle takes advantage of the fact that pine cones open and close based on their level of dryness. In constructing the pine cone in the bottle display,

450-448: Is 0.5–3 cm long, and the seeds 4–10 mm long. In some genera (e.g. Prumnopitys ), the scales are minute and not fleshy, but the seed coat develops a fleshy layer instead, the cone having the appearance of one to three small plums on a central stem. The seeds have a hard coat evolved to resist digestion in the bird's stomach. Members of the cypress family ( cypresses , arborvitae , junipers , redwoods , etc.) differ in that

495-426: Is a fairground with cone cow sculptures large enough for children to ride on. In Sweden, a video game was released in which the player may build virtual cone cows. Swedish artist Lasse Åberg has created artwork with cone cows, which has been included in an alphabet book and featured on a Swedish postage stamp among other classic toys. Cones are also used as decorative elements in architecture such as on top of

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540-519: Is complete. This process occurs with older cones while attached to branches and even after the older cones have fallen to the forest floor . The condition of fallen pine cones is a crude indication of the forest floor's moisture content, which is an important indication of wildfire risk. Closed cones indicate damp conditions while open cones indicate the forest floor is dry. As a result of this, pine cones have often been used by people in temperate climates to predict dry and wet weather, usually hanging

585-802: Is found in Mexico. Pines are widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere ; they occupy large areas of boreal forest , but are found in many habitats, including the Mediterranean Basin . The timber from pine trees is called "pine"; it is one of the most extensively used types of timber. There are currently 818 named cultivars (or trinomials ) recognized by the ACS. It is a well-known type of Christmas tree . Pine trees are evergreen , coniferous resinous trees (or, rarely, shrubs ) growing 3–80 metres (10–260 feet) tall, with

630-449: Is now restricted to fir ( Abies ) and Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga ). Pines are gymnosperms . The genus is divided into two subgenera based on the number of fibrovascular bundles in the needle. The subgenera can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters: Phylogenetic evidence indicates that both subgenera have a very ancient divergence from one another. Each subgenus is further divided into sections and subsections. Many of

675-801: Is one of the world's oldest living organisms at around 4,800 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California. An older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as " Prometheus " after the Greek immortal . The spiral growth of branches, needles, and cones scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called "candles"; they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then later turn green and spread outward. These "candles" offer foresters

720-494: Is poisonous. The whole 'berry' with the seed is eaten by birds, which digest the sugar-rich scale and pass the hard seed undamaged in their droppings, so dispersing the seed far from the parent plant. Welwitschia is unique cone-bearing plant is not considered a conifer, but belongs in the Order Welwitschiales . Welwitschia mirabilis is often called a living fossil and is the only species in its genus, which

765-483: Is that the male cones are located at the base of the branch, while the female at the tip (of the same or a different branchlet). However, in larches and cedars, both types of cones are always at the tips of short shoots, while both sexes of fir cones are always from side buds, never terminal. There is also some diversity in bearing in Cupressaceae. Some, Cupressus for instance, have little or no differentiation in

810-652: Is the largest genus of the Pinaceae , the pine family, which first appeared in the Jurassic period. Based on recent Transcriptome analysis, Pinus is most closely related to the genus Cathaya , which in turn is closely related to spruces . These genera, with firs and larches , form the pinoid clade of the Pinaceae. Pines first appeared during the Early Cretaceous, with the oldest verified fossil of

855-598: Is the only genus in its family, which is the only family in its Order. The male cones are on male plants, and female cones on female plants. After emergence of the two cotyledons , it sets only two more leaves. Those two leaves then continue to grow longer from their base, much like fingernails. This allows it great drought tolerance, which is likely why it has survived in the desert of Namibia , while all other representatives from its order are now extinct. For most species found in Australia, male and female cones occur on

900-470: The Castle of Santa Bárbara stands on the top of the mount. On its slopes there are Ereta Park, the neighborhoods of Santa Cruz, San Roque, San Anton and Raval Roig, and antique apartments. In recent years it has become a botellón , or place where young people congregate to socialize while drinking alcohol. Avenida Jaime II, which is a continuation of Avenida de Alfonso el Sabio, crosses the northern foot of

945-503: The genus Pinus ( / ˈ p aɪ n ə s / ) of the family Pinaceae . Pinus is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae . World Flora Online accepts 187 species names of pines as current, with additional synonyms, making it the largest family among the conifers. The American Conifer Society (ACS) and the Royal Horticultural Society accept 121 species. The highest species diversity of pines

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990-413: The pine family ( pines , spruces , firs , cedars , larches , etc.) have cones that are imbricate (that is, with scales overlapping each other like fish scales). These cones, especially the woody female cones, are considered the "archetypal" tree cones.The female cone has two types of scale: the bract scales, and the seed scales (or ovuliferous scales), one subtended by each bract scale, derived from

1035-441: The reproductive structures. The woody cone is the female cone , which produces seeds . The male cone , which produces pollen , is usually ephemeral and much less conspicuous even at full maturity. The name "cone" derives from Greek konos (pine cone), which also gave name to the geometric cone . The individual plates of a cone are known as scales . In conifers where the cone develops over more than one year (such as pines ),

1080-665: The Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’ (source of English pituitary ). Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs (from Old Norse fura , by way of Middle English firre ). In some European languages, Germanic cognates of the Old Norse name are still in use for pines — in Danish fyr , in Norwegian fura/fure/furu , Swedish fura/furu , Dutch vuren , and German Föhre — but in modern English, fir

1125-911: The bract and seed scales are fully fused, with the bract visible as no more than a small lump or spine on the scale. The botanical term galbulus (plural galbuli; from the Latin for a cypress cone) is sometimes used instead of strobilus for members of this family. The female cones have one to 20 ovules on each scale. They often have peltate scales, as opposed to the imbricate cones described above, though some have imbricate scales. The cones are usually small, 0.3–6 cm or 1 ⁄ 8 – 2 + 3 ⁄ 8 inches long, and often spherical or nearly so, like those of Nootka cypress , while others, such as western redcedar and California incense-cedar , are narrow. The scales are arranged either spirally, or in decussate whorls of two (opposite pairs) or three, rarely four. The genera with spiral scale arrangement were often treated in

1170-601: The counter-intuitive technique of "topping" and collection of cones from the severed crown tops at one-third the cost of collection from untopped trees and without decreasing cone production (Slayton 1969, Nienstaedt 1981). Most species of spruce are prone to the formation of pineapple gall pseudocones caused by the woolly aphids in the genus Adelges . These are not cones, although they closely resemble them. Alder ( Alnus ) trees are not conifers, but their mature seed bearing catkins closely resemble cones. Because of their widespread occurrence, conifer cones have been

1215-399: The first year's growth of a seed scale on the cone, showing up as a protuberance at the end of the two-year-old scale, is called an umbo , while the second year's growth is called the apophysis . The male cone ( microstrobilus or pollen cone ) is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways (mostly in scale arrangement) from species to species. Extending out from

1260-562: The genus being Pinus yorkshirensis from the Hauterivian - Barremian boundary (~130-125 million years ago) from the Speeton Clay , England. The evolutionary history of the genus Pinus has been complicated by hybridization . Pines are prone to inter-specific breeding. Wind pollination, long life spans, overlapping generations, large population size, and weak reproductive isolation make breeding across species more likely. As

1305-586: The majority of species reaching 15–45 m (50–150 ft) tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon , and the tallest is an 83.45 m (273.8 ft) tall sugar pine located in Yosemite National Park . Pines are long lived and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine ( P. longaeva ). One individual of this species, dubbed " Methuselah ",

1350-507: The male and female cones on the same tree. The male cones are small, typically 1–5 cm long, and only present for a short period (usually in spring, though autumn in a few pines), falling as soon as they have shed their pollen . 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;

1395-581: The most part, cone cows have been displaced by manufactured toys, at least in affluent countries, but the creation of cone cows still enjoys some popularity as an outdoor activity for children. Cone cows are a part of children's culture in Finland where they are known as Käpylehmä (plural: Käpylehmät ) and Sweden where they are known as kottkor or kottdjur (cone animals). Schools and other institutions teach children how to make cone cows as part of outdoors education on nature and history. In Finland there

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1440-478: The mount, and so does a tunnel of Alicante Tram . This article about a location in the Valencian Community, Spain, is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pine tree See List of Pinus species for complete taxonomy to species level. See list of pines by region for list of species by geographic distribution . A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in

1485-407: The opening of non- serotinous pine cones is associated with their moisture content—cones are open when dry and closed when wet. This assures that the small, windborne seeds will be dispersed during relatively dry weather, and thus, the distance traveled from the parent tree will be enhanced. A pine cone will go through many cycles of opening and closing during its life span, even after seed dispersal

1530-805: The pines have diversified, gene transfer between different species has created a complex history of genetic relatedness. P. nelsonii P. aristata P. balfouriana P. longaeva P. pinceana P. maximartinezii P. rzedowskii P. quadrifolia P. monophylla P. culminicola P. discolor P. remota P. edulis P. cembroides P. bungeana P. squamata P. gerardiana P. krempfii P. peuce P. lambertiana P. strobus P. chiapensis P. monticola P. flexilis P. strobiformis P. ayacahuite P. albicaulis P. koraiensis P. sibirica P. cembra P. parviflora P. wallichiana Conifer cone A conifer cone or, in formal botanical usage,

1575-457: The positions of male and female cones. Cone crop potential can be predicted in various ways. An early indication of a potential crop can be a period of abnormally hot, dry weather at the time of bud differentiation, particularly if the current and preceding cone crops have been poor (Nienstaedt and Zasada 1990). Estimates of cone crop potential can be made by counting female reproductive buds in fall or winter, and an experienced observer can detect

1620-567: The posts surrounding Koper 's Da Ponte Fountain , the central element of the Fontana della Pigna in Rome or a bronze cone in the narthex of the Aachen Cathedral . Cones are also occasionally used as a charge in heraldic coats of arms. In some parts of Russia and Georgia , immature pine cones are harvested in late spring and boiled to make sweet preserves . The pineal gland

1665-579: The same plant ( tree or shrub ), with female usually on the higher branches towards the top of the plant. This distribution is thought to improve chances of cross-fertilization , as pollen is unlikely to be blown vertically upward within the crown of one plant, but can drift slowly upward in the wind, blowing from low on one plant to higher on another plant. In some conifers, male cones additionally often grow clustered in large numbers together, while female cones are more often produced singly or in only small clusters. A further characteristic arrangement of pines

1710-411: The scales are imbricate and spirally arranged, and have 5-9 ovules on each scale. Members of the yew family and the closely related Cephalotaxaceae have the most highly modified cones of any conifer. There is only one scale in the female cone, with a single poisonous ovule. The scale develops into a soft, brightly coloured sweet, juicy, berry-like aril which partly encloses the deadly seed. The seed alone

1755-453: The scales at the base and tip of the cone are small and sterile, without seeds. The seeds are mostly small and winged, and are anemophilous (wind-dispersed), but some are larger and have only a vestigial wing, and are bird -dispersed. 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 ,

1800-463: The scales highly modified, evolved to attract birds into dispersing the seeds. In most of the genera, two to ten or more scales are fused together into a usually swollen, brightly coloured, soft, edible fleshy aril . Usually, only one or two scales at the apex of the cone are fertile, each bearing a single wingless seed, but in Saxegothaea several scales may be fertile. The fleshy scale complex

1845-484: The seed to escape. Maturation takes 6–8 months from pollination in most Pinaceae genera, but 12 months in cedars and 18–24 months (rarely more) in most pines. The cones open either by the seed scales flexing back when they dry out, or (in firs, cedars and golden larch ) by the cones disintegrating with the seed scales falling off. The cones are conic, cylindrical or ovoid (egg-shaped), and small to very large, from 2–60 cm long and 1–20 cm broad. After ripening,

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1890-542: The seeds although in some such as Araucaria bidwillii , the cone weighing up to 10 kilograms (22 lb) is shed intact. In Agathis , the seeds are winged and separate readily from the seed scale, but in the other two genera, the seed is wingless and fused to the scale. The cones of the Podocarpaceae are similar in function, though not in development, to those of the Taxaceae (q.v. below), being berry-like with

1935-469: The seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In others, the seeds are stored in closed cones for many years until an environmental cue triggers the cones to open, releasing the seeds. This is called serotiny . The most common form of serotiny is pyriscence, in which a resin binds the cones shut until melted by a forest fire, for example in P. rigida . The modern English name "pine" derives from Latin pinus , which some have traced to

1980-422: The smaller groups of Pinus are composed of closely related species with recent divergence and history of hybridization. This results in low morphological and genetic differences. This, coupled with low sampling and underdeveloped genetic techniques, has made taxonomy difficult to determine. Recent research using large genetic datasets has clarified these relationships into the groupings we recognize today. Pinus

2025-475: The subtle morphological differences and distinguish between reproductive buds and vegetative buds (Eis 1967b). White spruce seed collection is expensive, and collection from cone caches of red squirrels is probably the cheapest method. The viability of seed from cached cones does not vary during current caching, but viability drops essentially to zero after being in caches for 1 or 2 years (Wagg 1964). Collection of cones in seed orchards has been facilitated by

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