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Types of Tree Cones

Gymnosperms are a group of plants that produce seeds not sheathed in an ovary, like those of the flowering plants, or angiosperms. Many--though not all--gymnosperms are cone-bearing trees called conifers: males bear cones containing pollen, while females have cones full of seeds. Tree cones, comprised of modified leaves, come in many forms, but some generalizations can be made for each family of conifers.

Pines
- Pines like ponderosa pines usually produce relatively large cones.
  
  Some of the largest, flashiest cones belong to the widespread pine family, which contains over 100 species, mostly found in northerly parts of North America and Eurasia. The white pine typically generates long, slender cones without prickly scales, while the yellow pine has more rotund, pricklier and tougher-scaled cones. The longest cones--indeed, the longest of all conifers--belong to the largest of the pines, the sugar pine, which grows in the mountains of southern Oregon and California; its cones may be over a foot long.
Firs
- Fir cones are usually borne upright on the branch.
  
  Firs are broadly distributed northern conifers, often defined by spire-like crowns and thick-nested, upward-trending needles. They bear their cones vertically atop the branches. The scales are usually tightly packed, sometimes adorned with prickly bracts. Interestingly, the cones do not drop from the tree as single units; instead, the scales decay one by one, leaving behind the spine. North American firs often produce cones three or four inches long, though some, like the seven-inch cones of the California red fir, are larger.
Spruces
- The scales of spruce cones are sometimes pointed.
  
  Spruces are typically conical in form, with thick foliage of firm, prickly needles. Their cones hang downward from the branch. A number of species, like the Sitka and blue spruces, have pointy scales; others have scale-flakes that are gently convex. The cones typically are greenish when growing, trending to dark brown in maturity. Most are relatively short, though species like the Norway spruce may have cones six inches long.
Hemlocks
- A relatively few species of hemlocks grow worldwide; North America has four. The short needles of hemlocks mirror the diminutive size of the cones, which come typically in roundish, big-scaled form under an inch in length. But the mountain hemlock of the Northwest, which deals with some of the snowiest conditions of any tree in the world, produces larger cones--although, at about two inches long, they would be small by the standards of a pine or fir.
Others
- Some larches, like North America's western and subalpine species, have flowing bracts on their relatively small cones. Members of the cypress family usually have small, round cones--as do the biggest trees in the world, the coast redwood and giant sequoia of California, whose comparatively minuscule reproductive units don't reflect their gargantuan dimensions.

Nature