Here is some general information on the pine tree.
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.
Pines are native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. In Eurasia, they range from the Canary Islands, Iberian Peninsula and Scotland east to the Russian Far East, and in the Philippines, north to just over 70 degrees North in Norway, Finland and Sweden (Scots Pine) and eastern Siberia (Siberian Dwarf Pine), and south to northernmost Africa, the Himalaya and Southeast Asia, with one species (Sumatran Pine) just crossing the Equator in Sumatra to 2 degrees South.
Pines are evergreen, resinous trees (or rarely shrubs) growing 3 to 80 m tall, with the majority of species reaching 15 to 45 m tall. The smallest are Siberian Dwarf Pine and Potosi Pinyon, and the tallest is a 268.35-foot (81.79-meter) tall Ponderosa Pine located in southern Oregon's Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
The bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaking bark. The branches are produced in regular "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. The spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone 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 a means to evaluate fertility of the soil and vigour of the trees.
Pines are long-lived, typically reaching ages of 100 to 1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, one individual of which, at around 4,800 years old, is one of the world's oldest living organisms.
Pines are mostly monoecious, having the male and female cones on the same tree, though a few species are sub-dioecious with individuals predominantly, but not wholly, single-sex. The male cones are small, typically 1 to 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 to 3 years (depending on species) to mature after pollination, with actual fertilization delayed one year. At maturity the female cones are 3 to 60 cm long.
Each cone has numerous spirally arranged scales, with two seeds on each fertile scale; 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 (see below). At maturity, the cones usually open to release the seeds, but in some of the bird-dispersed species (e.g. Whitebark Pine), the seeds are only released by the bird breaking the cones open. In others, the fire climax pines (e.g. Monterey Pine, Pond Pine), the seeds are stored in closed ("serotinous") cones for many years until a forest fire kills the parent tree; the cones are also opened by the heat and the stored seeds are then released in huge numbers to re-populate the burnt ground.
Pines are among the most commercially important of tree species, valued for their timber and wood pulp throughout the world. In temperate and tropical regions, they are fast-growing softwoods that will grow in relatively dense stands, their acidic decaying needles inhibiting the sprouting of competing hardwoods. Commercial pines are grown in plantations for timber that is denser, more resinous, and therefore more durable than spruce (Picea). Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as furniture, window frames, paneling, floors and roofing, and the resin of some species is an important source of turpentine.
Many pine species make attractive ornamental plantings for parks and larger gardens, with a variety of dwarf cultivars being suitable for smaller spaces. Pines are also commercially grown and harvested for Christmas trees. Pine cones, the largest and most durable of all conifer cones are craft favorites. Pine boughs, always appreciated, especially in wintertime for their pleasant smell and greenery, are popularly cut for decorations.
Some species have large seeds, called pine nuts, that are harvested and sold for cooking and baking.
The soft, moist, white inner bark (cambium) found clinging to the woody outer bark is edible and very high in vitamins A and C.
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