Conifers - woody plants from the coniferous department, usually evergreen , covered with needle-shaped, ruled or scaly leaves - needles . Mostly conifers include trees , less often shrubs .
Coniferous plants are distributed mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. In total, there are about 400 species classified as conifers.
The most famous representatives of conifers are represented by widespread large trees from the genera: pine , spruce , fir , larch , which make up extensive forests called coniferous forests . Forests formed by one of such species as Scots pine , Siberian pine, Siberian larch or Daurian larch , Siberian fir or Caucasian fir , are usually called: pine , cedar , larch , fir . Other conifers are represented by species from the genera Juniper , yew , thuja , cypress and some others.
Depending on the attitude to illumination, conifers divide:
- Dark coniferous species - shade-tolerant coniferous species - fir , spruce , cedar , etc., form dark coniferous forests .
- Light coniferous species - photophilous coniferous species - pine and larch , form light coniferous forests .
Many conifers are of great economic importance as a source of commercial wood and are the object of industrial procurement.
Literature
- Coniferous // Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [30 t.] / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 3rd ed. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.
- Zhukov A.M. and others. Dangerous little-studied coniferous diseases in the forests of Russia . - Pushkino, 2013.