The plant you choose should have dark green foliage. fallen yet low or damaged leaves indicate poor handling or fertilization, lack of water or a root disease problem. The colorful flower bracts (red, pink, white or bicolor pink and white) Should be in proportion to the plant and pot size. Little or no pollen should be showing oil the actual flowers (those red or green button-like parts in the center of the colorful bracts). Be sure the plant is well wrapped when you take it outside on your trip home because exposure to low temperatures for even a short time can injure leaves and bracts.
Full Definition of CONIFER. : any of an order (Coniferales) of mostly evergreen trees and shrubs having usually needle-shaped or scalelike leaves and including forms (as pines) with true cones and others (as yews) with an arillate fruit.
A pine cone is an organ of the pine tree containing its reproductive structures. Pine trees are only one of the conifer, or cone-bearing, plants; others include cedars, firs, cypresses, and redwoods.Pine cones, like the reproductive organs of other conifers, come in male and female varieties.In most species of pine, male and female cones grow on the same tree. The trees of some species have cones predominantly of only one sex, with a few of the opposite sex. Pinus is a genus of trees with about 115 species.ale cones are smaller, more herbaceous, and shorter lived. The male cone is usually no more than 2 inches (5 cm) long and lives for only a few months in the spring or the autumn, depending on the species of pine. It is covered with microsporangia, or pollen sacs. After it releases its pollen, it falls off the tree.