Conifer facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Conifera
Trees of a Pinophyta species: Araucaria heterophylla (Araucariaceae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Orders & Families
Cordaitales † Pinales   Pinaceae – Pine family   Araucariaceae – Araucaria family   Podocarpaceae – Yellow-wood family   Sciadopityaceae – Umbrella-pine family   Cupressaceae – Cypress family   Cephalotaxaceae – Plum-yew family   Taxaceae – Yew family Vojnovskyales † Voltziales †

The Conifers are cone-bearing seed plants. Most are trees; some are shrubs. They are formally the Division Pinophyta or Coniferophyta.

Conifers are Gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue. All living conifers are woody plants, and most are trees.

Living conifers are all in the order Pinales. Typical examples include cedars, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauris, larches, pines, redwoods, spruces, and yews.

Species of conifers can be found in almost all parts of the world, and are often the most common plants in their habitats, as in the taiga. Conifers are of great economic value, and their wood is mainly used for timber and paper making. The wood of conifers is known as softwood, though yew wood is actually quite hard. The division Coniferae contains about 700 living species.

Evolution

The earliest conifers were in the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) period (about 300 million years ago), Pinophytes, Cycads, and Ginkgos all developed at this time. These plants live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen (so Fertilization can occur without water) and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere.

Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event. They were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic era. Conifers were eventually overtaken by the flowering plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. Flowering plants became dominant in the Cainozoic era.

Conifers were the main food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons no doubt gave them some protection against herbivores. All the reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era.

Related pages

• Gymnosperm
• Conifer cones

Images for kids

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  The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, help them shed snow.

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  Pinaceae: needle-like leaves and vegetative buds of Coast Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii)

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  Araucariaceae: Awl-like leaves of Cook Pine (Araucaria columnaris)

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  In Abies grandis (grand fir), and many other species with spirally arranged leaves, leaf bases are twisted to flatten their arrangement and maximize light capture.

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  Cupressaceae: scale leaves of Lawson's Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana); scale in mm

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  A thin section showing the internal structure of conifer wood

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  A Monterey Pine forest in Sydney, Australia

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  Globosa, a cultivar of Pinus sylvestris, a northern European species, in the North American Red Butte Garden

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  Pinaceae: unopened female cones of subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa)

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  Taxaceae: the fleshy aril that surrounds each seed in the European Yew (Taxus baccata) is a highly modified seed cone scale

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  Pinaceae: pollen cone of a Japanese Larch (Larix kaempferi)

See also

In Spanish: Coníferas para niños