Needles and cones

Needles in bundles: pines

Pine needles grow in bundles called fascicles, held together at the base by a papery sheath. Count the needles in a bundle. Eastern white pine has five, and the word white has five letters, which is a handy way to remember it. Many other pines have bundles of two or three. Red, Scots and lodgepole pines have two. Loblolly has three, and ponderosa has two or three.

Single needles: spruce, fir and their relatives

Spruce needles are stiff, sharp and four-sided, so they roll between your fingers. Each sits on a tiny woody peg, which stays on the twig after the needle falls and makes the twig feel rough. Spruce cones hang down. Fir needles are flat, soft and blunt, and each one is attached by a small round base that leaves a smooth round scar. Fir cones stand upright on the branch and fall apart there. A common memory aid is that firs are flat and friendly, spruces are square and spiky.

Douglas-fir, hemlock and yew also have flat single needles. Hemlock needles are short and sit on tiny stalks. Douglas-fir is not a true fir. Its hanging cones have three-pointed bracts that stick out between the scales. Yew does not make a woody cone at all: its seed sits in a red, fleshy cup, and the foliage and seed are poisonous.

Clusters of needles on short spurs

Larches and the true cedars (genus Cedrus) carry their needles in tufts on short, knobby spurs. Larch is the exception among conifers in cold climates: it is deciduous, turning yellow and dropping its needles in autumn. True cedars are evergreen and have upright, barrel-shaped cones that break apart on the tree.

Scale leaves

Many conifers in the cypress family have tiny overlapping scale-like leaves pressed against the twig, usually in flat sprays or four-sided shoots. Arborvitae (Thuja) has flat sprays. Junipers can have sharp, needle-like young foliage and scale-like adult foliage, and their cones are fleshy and berry-like.

Evergreen is not the same as conifer

Larch, bald cypress and dawn redwood are conifers that lose their leaves in autumn. Holly and live oak are evergreen broadleaf trees. Ask two questions separately: needles or broad leaves, and keeps leaves or drops them.

How cones work

Conifers have separate pollen cones and seed cones. Pollen cones are small and soft and shed their pollen in spring. Seed cones are the woody ones. Pine cones take two years to ripen, so you may see young green cones and old brown ones on the same branch. Some cones, such as those of lodgepole pine in fire-prone country, stay sealed with resin until the heat of a fire opens them.

The main North American conifers at a glance

A short map of the groups, with the page that covers each.

• Pines (Pinus): bundles of 2, 3 or 5. See pine.
• Spruces (Picea): stiff, four-sided single needles. See spruce.
• True firs (Abies): flat, blunt needles and upright cones. See fir.
• Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga): hanging cones with three-pointed bracts. See Douglas-fir.
• Hemlocks (Tsuga): short flat needles on tiny stalks. See fir.
• Larches (Larix): deciduous, in tufts. See larch.
• Cedars, arborvitae, junipers and cypresses: scales or sharp needles. See cedars and junipers.
• Redwoods and sequoias (Sequoia, Sequoiadendron): the tallest and most massive trees; scale-like or short, flat needles.