A conifer cone (in formal

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is a seed-bearing organ on

gymnosperm The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, '' Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμν ...

plants. It is usually woody, ovoid to globular, including scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, especially in conifers and

cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk with a crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male o ...

s. The cone of

Pinophyta Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All ext ...

(conifer clade) contains the reproductive structures. The woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cone, which produces pollen, is usually herbaceous 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''. The ''umbo'' of a conifer cone refers to 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. 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 a central axis are microsporophylls (modified leaves). Under each microsporophyll is one or several

microsporangia Microsporangia are sporangia that produce microspores that give rise to male gametophytes when they germinate. Microsporangia occur in all vascular plants that have heterosporic life cycles, such as seed plants, spike mosses and the aquatic fe ...

( pollen sacs). The female cone (megastrobilus, seed cone, or ovulate cone) contains

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the '' integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the ...

s 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.

Female cone of the conifer families

Pinaceae cones

Pinus sylvestris female strobilus and cone en

The members of the

pine family The Pinaceae, or pine family, are conifer trees or shrubs, including many of the well-known conifers of commercial importance such as Cedrus, cedars, firs, Tsuga, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces. The family is included in the order Pinales, ...

(

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts ...

s, spruces, firs,

cedar Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains fur ...

es, etc.) have cones that are imbricate (that is, with scales overlapping each other like fish scales). These pine 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 a highly modified

branchlet {{Short pages monitor Image:Sapporo_Picea_Abies_Pinecone_1.jpg, Cluster of Norway Spruce cones on Hokkaidō. Image:Arborvitae cone.png,

Arborvitae ''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to '' Thujopsis''. ...

cone. Image:Pine Cones Jam.jpg, Pine cones jam (

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). Image:Pinus canariensis (male) in Presa de las Niñas 02.jpg,

Pinus canariensis ''Pinus canariensis'', the Canary Island pine, is a species of gymnosperm in the conifer family Pinaceae. It is a large, evergreen tree, native and endemic to the outer Canary Islands of the Atlantic Ocean. Description ''Pinus canariensis'' is a ...

male cone in

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...

. File:Pine Cones.jpg, Pine Cones File:More Pine Cones.jpg, More Pine Cones File:Abies bracteata 01 Cone Peak.jpg, The cone structure of Abies bracteata

Visualisation of a ''Cupressus'' cone by micro computed tomography

File:Cupressus strobilus ("cone"), front and back.jpg, Photographs of the cone, front and back File:ΜCT Cupressus strobilus 01.jpg, 3D visualisation of the cone File:ΜCT Cupressus strobilus 02 - 3D section series.jpg, Various sections through the 3D object File:ΜCT Cupressus strobilus 03 semi-transparent.jpg, Semi-transparent view File:ΜCT Cupressus strobilus 04 mid section.jpg, Midsection File:ΜCT of a cupressus strobilus, spiral 3D flight.ogg, Flight around the 3D object File:ΜCT of a cupressus strobilus, frontal flight through image stack.ogg, Flight through the µCT image stack, lateral view File:ΜCT of a cupressus strobilus, top flight through image stack.ogg, Flight through the µCT image stack, top view

References

External links

Arboretum de Villardebelle
Images of various conifer-cones

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conifer Cone Conifers Plant morphology Articles containing video clips Heraldic charges