Pine family, Pinaceae
Origin: Caucasus, Asia Minor (Armenia, Turkey)
Habitat in the original area: mountain valleys with an oceanic climate (it is sensitive to severe frosts and high summer temperatures)
Habitus: A tree growing to the height of 30 metres (in its homeland up to 60 metres) with a pyramidal, regularly branching crown. The bark is grey, smooth when young, longitudinally furrowed when old. Ovoid buds do not produce resin.
Leaf: The needles up to 3.5 centimetres long densely cover the twig from the upper side. They smell when rubbed in the palm. The upper side is shiny, dark green, on the lower side there are two white stripes.
Bloom, fruit: Its cones grow around the top of the tree. Female ones are green-yellow, male ones are red. The cones ripen in October; they are brown, up to 18 centimetres long, cylindrical and resinous. They have supporting scales protruding from them. They do not fall from the tree as a whole, they disintegrate on it.
Interesting fact: The largest specimen grows in Russia. It reaches the height of 78 metres; its trunk diameter is 3.6 metres. It is the most frequently sold Christmas tree in the Czech Republic.
