All You Need to Know About the Pine Tree

The Pine tree comes in the category of Coniferous trees. It is evergreen and conical in shape.

The Pine tree belongs to the family Pinaceae, which is the family of hardwood shrubs. Pinaceae is the largest family of conifers having around 220-250 species.

On an average, a typical pine tree grows about 50 to 100 feet tall. However, some varieties may also grow taller. For instance, white pine can soar up to 150 feet or so.

Pine leaves are needle-shaped or acicular in shape. Such shape of its leaves enables a pine tree to retain moisture.

Pine leaves contain high amounts of Vitamin A, which improves eyesight, hair, and also helps in the production of RBCs. Pine leaves act as antioxidants to cure soar throat.

The oldest Pine fossil discovered is 140 million years old. The fossil is that of a charred twig. which was discovered by Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang in a rock quarry in Canada.

Pine tree species belong to group "Gymnospermae". The seeds are naked or not enclosed inside a fruit. These plants are non-flowering having open seeds.

Pine trees are Monoecious. The male and female cones are present in distinct parts of the same plant. Trees show sexual reproduction. The male seeds produce pollen and female seeds give rise to the new offspring.

The states of Kansas and Hawaii have no native, naturally growing varieties of pine trees. However, pine trees have been introduced in these states, which have environments that are very different from the natural pine habitats.

Four distinct pine species are known to have the longest needles viz, Pinus palustris, Pinus engelmanni, Pinus nubicola, and Pinus lumholtzii. Each needle of these pines can be up to 40 cm long.