Seed cone

A seed cone is a reproductive structure in many conifers that bears ovules and, after fertilization, developing seeds. Its scales often open or change as seeds mature and disperse.

Ovule: A plant structure containing the female reproductive cell and developing into a seed after fertilization. Ovules sit on seed-cone scales before fertilization.
Conifer: A gymnosperm tree or shrub that bears seeds in cones or related reproductive structures. Seed cones are characteristic reproductive structures of many conifers.
Pine cone: The woody reproductive cone of a pine, with scales arranged around a central axis. Pine cones are familiar examples of woody seed cones that open as they dry.
Late Carboniferous: The final epoch of the Carboniferous Period, lasting from about 323 to 299 million years ago. Early conifer-lineage plants arose in the broader evolutionary history of seed-bearing cones.
Pollination: The transfer of pollen to a plant structure where fertilization can occur. Wind-borne pollen reaches ovules through openings in the cone scales.
Pollen cone: A conifer cone that produces pollen rather than bearing ovules and seeds. It supplies pollen but does not mature into the seed-bearing cone.
Serotinous cone: A cone that retains mature seeds until heat or another environmental trigger causes it to open. This specialized seed cone delays seed release until conditions favor regeneration.
Voltziales: An extinct order of coniferophytes known chiefly from the Permian and Triassic periods. Fossil Voltziales show early forms of conifer reproductive structures.
Fertilization in plants: The fusion of male and female gametes in plants, initiating formation of an embryo. Fertilization turns an ovule borne by the cone into a developing seed.
Pollen: A plant structure that carries the male gametophyte to a female reproductive structure. Pollen is the male contribution to reproduction in seed cones.

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