Let's talk a little about botany - how many species of conifers

At the school of nature studies, my son was given an essay on how many species of conifers exist. We sat down with him to prepare yesterday and got confused. I then thought that if conifers, then evergreen, but, it turned out, there are trees that shed their foliage. Help us draw up a classification of conifers and divide them into groups or species, I don't know how they are called correctly.

Recently, conifers have become very popular among landscape designers, because they are unpretentious and look gorgeous. And given how many species of conifers there are, there is plenty to choose from. Proud tall spruces or cute dwarf junipers and cypresses ... Every gardener can find a plant to his taste and taking into account the possibilities of his site. Although many cultures can be very different from each other, they belong to a huge group of conifers. They have only one department, and they are united by the fact that the cultures are gymnosperms, that is, the seeds are formed not from the color, but in the cones. Most conifers have needles, cones, and evergreens. But there are deciduous species or plants in which the cones look like berries and even fruits.

How many types of conifers are there

Most of the pines, firs and other members of the group grow in cool climates. However, there are those that live well in the hot tropics.

In general, the class or department of conifers has more than 650 species, grouped into 70 genera. And they, in turn, make up 7 families of conifers, namely:

• pine;
• yew;
• cypress;
• araucariaceae;
• podocarp;
• capitate;
• sciadopitis.

All seven families are representatives of the only existing department of conifers, which is called pine in botany. However, three more orders of conifers previously existed, which have long since become extinct. These are Wolcian, Kordaite and Voinovskii.

Pine family

It has 11 genera and more than 250 species. Almost all representatives of the order are evergreen, except for deciduous larch. They grow mainly in temperate climates and subtropics. Most of them are odorous and resinous trees, although there are also shrubs. They have a smooth bark, fibrous root system and simple needles.

Pine plants include:

• cedar;
• fir;
• Pine;
• spruce;
• larch;
• hemlock.

Yew family

There are 6 genera and a little more than 30 species of plants growing in a temperate and mild climate. Only a few of them lose their needles, the rest are evergreen. The leaves of all yew trees are called so - yews, and they are narrow, or it is wide needles.

Yew conifers include:

• yew;
• torrey;
• Austrotaxus.

Cypress family

It unites woody plants (trees, shrubs, elfin trees) that live in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. There are 32 genera and almost 170 plant species

The following conifers belong to yew:

• juniper;
• cypress;
• diesel;
• cryptomeria.

Araucariaceae family

It has only three genera: wollemia, araucaria and agathis. They include no more than 40 plant species, namely:

• 18 types of agathis;
• 21 species of araucaria;
• the only type of wollemia called "noble".

Podocarp family

Includes 20 genera and 191 species of plants growing mainly in humid and warm climates. Podocarp representatives:

• akmopile;
• dactridium;
• podocarp.

Family of cephalotis

Evergreen and dense trees or shrubs with linear, spiral or spear needles. They grow mainly in East Asia. They have only 3 genera and 20 species.

The capvate lice include:

• torrey;
• capitate yew;
• amentotactus.

Family sciadopitis

It includes the only species - verticular sciadopitis. Under natural conditions, it grows only in Japan, in humid mountain forests. This is an evergreen tree up to 40 m high with a unique thickened needles collected in false whorls.

What are the types of conifers