Family Pinaceae: The Pines, Cedars, Spruce, and Firs


Family Pinaceae:
The Pines, Cedars, Spruce, and Firs

The Pine family is the most varied of all the groups of trees that bear cones (conifers).

White Pines
White Pines commonly live to 400+ years.
Conifer comes from the Latin for "cone bearing." A conifer's seeds are borne in its cones. If you were to shake a typical mature cone, seeds would fall out. Almost all plants on earth produce seeds, and these plants are divided into two categories: gymnosperms and angiosperms. The angiosperms have their seeds embedded inside fruit; think of an apple or a pumpkin. Angiosperms comprise, by far, the biggest of the two groups.

Pollination in conifers is always dependant on wind. "Gymnosperm" is Latin for "naked seed". Gymnosperms evolved before flowering plants, and conifers (all plants in Pinaceae are conifers) are gymnosperms. There are fewer than 1,000 species of gymnosperms, representing barely 1/2 of one percent of all plant species.

Red Pine - Pinus Resinosa
Pinus resinosa
Red Pine
Globe Blue Spruce
Blue Globe Spruce
Picea pungens

Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus
Nordmann Fir - Abies nordmanniana
Nordmann Fir
Abies nordmanniana
Manchurian Fir - Abies nephrolepis
Manchurian Fir
Abies nephrolepis
Ponderosa Pine
Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa
Balsam Fir - Abies balsamea
Balsam Fir
Abies balsamea
Pseudotsuga menzziesii var. glauca
Douglas-Fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii
Koyama Spruce
Koyama Spruce
Picea koyamae
White Fir
White Fir
Abies concolor
European Larch
European Larch
Larix dicidua
Eastern Hemlock
Eastern Hemlock
Tsuga canadensis
Norway Spruce - Picea abies
Norway Spruce
Picea abies
A mature, fertilized female cone may be thought of as "fruit" (although technically conifers do not "flower" and hence cannot bear fruit). In most conifers, the cones are woody structures, but by no means do they all look like the classic pinecone. Some have seeds enveloped in a fleshy coating. Separate male cones are called staminate; they often take the form of tiny cones or catkins; these provide the pollen to fertilize the female cones, which ultimately produce the seeds. The female cones are the familiar woody structures and they are called pistillate cones. Most species of conifer are monoecious: they have both male and female cones on the same tree.
Himalayan White Pine Tree
Himalayan White Pine
Serbian Spruce
Serbian Spruce
Dragon Spruce
Dragon Spruce
European Silver Fir, Abies alba
European Silver Fir
Olga Bay Larch
Olga Bay Larch
The oldest tree? Sometime around 7542 B.C., a spruce tree started growing on Fulu Mountain in Sweden. It is still growing. Spruce trees can produce exact clones, and while the currently visible part of the tree is not 9,550 years old, scientists found pieces of wood beneath it that are – with exactly the same genetic makeup as the now living above-ground tree.
Siberian Larch - Larix sibirica
Siberian Larch
Fremd Eastern Hemlock - Tsuga canadensis 'Fremdii'
Fremd Eastern Hemlock
Limber Pine - Pinus flexilis
Limber Pine
Subalpine Fir
Subalpine Fir
Mugo Pine
Mugo Pine
Pinyon Pine - Pinus edulis
Pinyon Pine
Lacebark Pine
Lacebark Pine
Hornibrook Dwarf Austrian Pine
Hornibrook Austrian Pine
Jack Pine - Pinus banksiana
Jack Pine

Japanese White Pine
Scotch Pine
Scots Pine or Scotch Pine
Japanese Red Pine (Tanyosho Pine) - Pinus densiflora 'Umbraculifera'
Tanyosho Pine
Korean Pine - Pinus koraiensis
Korean Pine
Waterer Scots Pine
Waterer Scots Pine
Pinus sylvestris 'watereri'
Table Mountain Pine
Table Mountain Pine
Pinus pungens
Balkan Pine - Pinus peuce
Balkan Pine
Pinus peuce
Dwarf White Pine - Pinus strobus 'Nana'
Dwarf White Pine
Pinus strobus 'Nana'


Shensi Fir
 Abies chensiensis

Golden Larch - Pseudolarix amabilis
Golden Larch
 Pseudolarix amabilis


Prince Rupprecht Larch
 L. gmelinii var.

Needle Fir - Abies holophylla
Needle Fir
Abies holophylla
Japanese Red Pine - Pinus densiflora
Japanese Red Pine
 Pinus densiflora
Douglas-fir
Douglas Fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii
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Trees live longer than any other organism on earth. Trees commonly live more than 1,000 years, and many grow considerably older. Trees have been living on Earth for more than 370 million years, and today can be found almost everywhere from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara Desert.  Family Pinaceae: Pine, Cedar, Spruce, Fir