Pine trees are monoecious plants. Do they bloom and bear fruit in spring?
Pine trees are monoecious plants, and their most obvious feature is that the leaves are needle-shaped, usually in bundles of 2, 3 or 5 needles, and in people's general impression, pine trees have no flowers. So do pine trees bloom and bear fruit in spring? According to Master Xiao, a pine tree grower in Loudi City, pine trees not only bloom, but both female and male flowers bloom. Female cones are borne singly or 2 to 4 together at the tips of new branches, while male cones mostly gather at the lower part of new branches. Pine cones generally open in spring and summer, and the flowering time of different pine varieties is not the same, for example: Deodar cedar: flowering period is October-November; Masson pine: flowering period is April; Black pine: flowering period is April-May; Japanese red pine: flowering period is April; Chinese pine: flowering period is April-May; Loblolly pine: flowering period is March-April; Golden larch: flowering period is April-May; Slash pine: flowering period is late March; Japanese white pine: flowering period is May. In addition, after the female flowers are pollinated, they will produce pine nuts.
Master Xiao also revealed that after bees or wind carry the male flower pollen to the female cones, it will not germinate until late spring or early summer of the following year, fertilizing the female flowers and developing into cones (commonly known as pine towers or pine balls, not fruits). The cones mature after autumn, the seed scales open, and each seed scale bears two seeds.
Most species in the genus Pinus are tall and upright trees, and their wood is good, with no lack of timber worthy of being pillars. Northeast China's “king of timber”——Korean pine, the tall tree species widely distributed in western North America (up to 75 m tall)—ponderosa pine, the fastest-growing pine native to the coast of California, USA——radiata pine, slash pine native to the southeastern United States, Caribbean pine native to the Caribbean region of the Americas, Scots pine widely distributed in western and northern Eurasia, and so on, are all famous timber tree species.
The ornamental value of pine trees is also obvious to all. In China, the beautiful figures of pine trees can be seen from classical royal gardens to modern residents' homes, such as the Chinese pine and lacebark pine in Beihai and the Summer Palace in Beijing, and the Japanese white pine widely used in stump bonsai. In some famous mountains and scenic spots, the mountains are made more imposing by the pines, and the pines are made famous by the mountains. The Guest-Greeting Pine of Huangshan, the Huashan pine of Mount Hua, the Beauty Pine of Changbai Mountain…… none of them fail to make visitors marvel.
In addition, large fungi often grow at the root area of pine trees. Some of them are wood-decay fungi, which can decompose pine trees and cause root rot; some are ectomycorrhizal fungi, which can exchange nutrients with pine trees and prevent nutrient deficiency in the trees, which would otherwise affect growth.