Pine is a genus of plants from the pine family (Pinaceae Lindl.), comprising almost 115 species of trees and shrubs.
Pines are commonly found in the Northern Hemisphere. Pines are evergreen, coniferous resinous trees (or, rarely, shrubs) growing 3–80 metres tall, with the majority of species reaching 15–45 m tall.
The Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine
Pines are long lived and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more.
Needles, the adult leaves, are green and bundled in clusters called fascicles.
The needles persist for 1.5–40 years, depending on species.
Pines are native to the Northern Hemisphere, and to a few parts from the tropics to temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere.
Pines may be found in a very large variety of environments, ranging from semi-arid desert to rainforests, from sea level up to 5,200 m, from the coldest to the hottest environments on Earth.
They often occur in mountainous areas with favorable soils and at least some water.
Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks and gardens.
The seeds are commonly eaten by birds, such as grouse, crossbills, jays, nuthatches, siskins, and woodpeckers, and by squirrels.
Many pine species make attractive ornamental plantings for parks and larger gardens with a variety of dwarf cultivars being suitable for smaller spaces.
Pine wood is widely used in high-value carpentry items such as furniture, window frames, panelling, floors, and roofing, and the resin of some species is an important source of turpentine.
Disclaimer: This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles Pine and Pinus sylvestris (contributors), which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.