Conifer

Article By:

Mapes, Gene K. Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Rothwell, Gar W. Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Last reviewed:April 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.157060

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• Conifers, published July 2015:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Any living or fossil member of the plant division Pinophyta, consisting chiefly of woody trees or shrubs that produce cones and evergreen needles. Conifers are predominantly cone-bearing, evergreen trees and shrubs belonging to the order Pinales, as well as a small number of extinct orders, in the class Pinopsida of the plant division Pinophyta (Coniferophyta). All conifers are woody plants, and they are often the predominant trees of forests worldwide (Fig. 1), including pine, spruce, fir, hemlock, cedar, larch, juniper, cypress, yew, and redwood species. Because the ovules (young seeds) of conifers are exposed directly to the air at the time of pollination (that is, conifers produce seeds that are not enclosed in a fruit or ovary), these plants are classified as gymnosperms. (In contrast, the flowering plants, or angiosperms, have ovules enclosed in an ovary.) Today, conifers constitute the principal source of lumber and pulp for paper and wood products. See also: Cedar; Cypress; Fir; Forest; Forest timber resources; Forestry; Hemlock; Juniper; Larch; Lumber; Pinales; Pine; Pinophyta; Pinopsida; Redwood; Seed; Spruce; Tree; Wood products; Yew

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