
Foto: Agnieszka Kwiecień (Nova) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Which conifer does this cone come from?
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Spruce
18 questions · Nature
A walk through a winter forest: everything is green, everything has needles, and yet you are not looking at one tree but at half a dozen species side by side. Photos of the whole tree are little help in telling them apart: from a distance a spruce looks deceptively like a fir. Anyone who really wants to recognise conifers looks at the details, and that is exactly what this pack shows: cones, twigs, bark and fruits. The spruce lets its cones hang down and pricks when you reach for it. The fir, by contrast, is soft, has two white stripes under every needle and holds its cones upright like candles until they fall apart on the tree. The pine bundles its long needles in pairs and glows orange-red high up on the trunk. The larch is the only native species that sheds its needles in autumn, after they have turned golden. The Douglas fir from North America gives itself away with cones from which little mouse tails peek out, and needles that smell of lemon. Then there is the poisonous yew with no cones but red seed coats, the prickly juniper with its blue-black berries, and the thuja, or arborvitae, with flat scales instead of needles. After every answer the ‘How to recognise it’ box explains what to look for outdoors: so that you could identify the tree with your eyes closed, just by touch and smell. Did you know that most of the ‘pine cones’ children collect in German forests are actually spruce cones?
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Foto: Agnieszka Kwiecień (Nova) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Spruce
Foto: Jerzy Opioła · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fir
Foto: George Chernilevsky · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine
Foto: Jens Jäpel · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons
Larch
Foto: Luis Apiolaza · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Douglas fir
Foto: Simon A. Eugster · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Spruce
Foto: Nefronus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fir
Foto: Radio Tonreg from Vienna, Austria · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine
Foto: Hans Gasperl (Gaha) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Larch
Foto: Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Yew
Foto: Crusier · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Juniper
Foto: Joshua Mayer from Madison, WI, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Thuja

Foto: User:Gerhard Elsner · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Spruce
Foto: Crusier · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Fir
Foto: Akkbula · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pine
Foto: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Larch
Foto: Dixie (Wikimedia Commons) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Yew
Foto: Ivar Leidus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Juniper
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