Aside from their characteristic needle-shaped leaves, what makes a pine tree different from the maples, oaks and beeches and other broad-leaved trees? Why do they have cones and the broad-leaf ...

The sight of huge pine cones on the table at a recent longleaf ... The trees depended on periodic forest fires to burn the leaf litter because their seeds must germinate in bare soil.

Leaves – Evergreen needles are 2 per fascicle; about 5” long; dark green; stout; rigid; sharply pointed. Twigs and buds – Opposite branching with waxy and resinous buds. Cones/flowers – A monoecious ...

The cones are squatty and somewhat asymmetric, starting out shiny brown, but weathering eventually to a dull gray. Being a pine, its leaves are in the form of evergreen needles, of course.

This was an unusual willow, though, that looked like it had hybridized with a pine tree ... Instead, leaves once destined to flutter along a twig now layered together in the cone-like structures ...