A Pine Cone is a scaly trimmed woody cone fruit of a coniferous tree. There are more than 100 types of coniferous trees. These produce both male and female cone fruits. The male pinecone is the smallest, contains pollen and only lives for a few weeks. The female pinecone is larger and contains (if fertilized) seeds.
The pollen has two air bubbles that help it float in the air when released by the male cone. In some conifers, male cones sit higher in the tree than female cones, so the pollen, when released, takes advantage of this added height by floating further when the wind carries it away. The pollen are beautifully visible in the photo taken with the fluorescence microscope.
It takes about two to three years before the cones are fully grown and dried. Only then will the tree drop them. So pine cones of different ages hang from a coniferous tree. The male fruits often fall at the end of spring, the female pinecones usually at the end of summer and in autumn.
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