Pine is the most valuable coniferous species on the territory of the Russian state. Its height reaches up to 40 meters. The trunk is strong, noticeable among other woody plants with its brown color. The base of the pine is covered with thicker bark. It is not by chance that nature intended it.
The density of the bark performs the protective function of the plant. Thus, the coniferous beauty is saved in the summer from overheating and from emerging fires. Outwardly, the pine looks like a really chic tree. Its needles attract attention with their juicy green color.
It is collected in numerous bundles of 2-3 needles and reaches a length of 4 to 7 centimeters. The needles themselves are graceful, have a noticeable longitudinal strip. In autumn, a certain proportion of coniferous needles fall off.
The rest is covered with a layer of wood wax. The stomata of the needles close, thereby stopping breathing. This allows you to save the tree strength for the duration of the entire winter period. What else is interesting about the coniferous beauty?
Pine cones. Photos of interesting fruits
It is difficult to find a person who does not know that cones grow on a pine tree. Their size can be compared with a large walnut. If athe bump is old, then it is brown. It is woody to the touch, and its scales are loose and bristle in different directions.
Few people know that pine is one of the most ancient trees. An ordinary cone with seeds inside is the seed of an evergreen plant. Female pine fruits are called megastrobils, male - microstrobils.
How a cone is born
It all starts with a small red balloon. This is a pine germ that appears in May, when young shoots begin to break through from the pine buds. At the beginning of their development, they are not covered with pine needles.
Instead of them, you can see light shoots. In their midst, young seedlings begin their development. A female pine cone develops at the top of a coniferous shoot.
Usually, by autumn, the seedlings turn green and slightly exceed the size of a pea. Approximately in this position, the fruits are all winter. In the spring, when nature awakens, pine cones continue to develop.
Their size in length reaches from 3 to 7 centimeters. By August, the seedlings reach their usual size - 10 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide. In the spring, the fruits actively continue their development.
By the end of summer, pine cones acquire their adult color - brown. But despite its maturity, the seedlings are not yet revealed. Seeds cannot yet spill out due to strongly pressed scales. But already during this period, the density of pine cones is higher than that of other coniferous fruits.trees.
Male and female pine cones
The fruit of a coniferous tree, which is located at the base of a young shoot, is called a male pine cone. Women's, as already mentioned, is at the top of a pine branch. The structure of the cone is simple - an axis with numerous scales. They have ovules that produce eggs. Scotch pine begins to bear fruit by the age of 20-30.
The male pine cone has the same structure as the female. The only thing is that there are two pollen sacs on the lower scales of the fruit. It is in them that the maturation of pollen and the formation of sperm occurs.
Fertilization occurs when the pollen from the male fruit reaches the female cones of the first year pine. Until this time, the pollen is at rest. Only a year later, it forms a pollen tube through which sperm tend to archegonia.
One sperm fuses with an egg to form a zygote. Then the embryo begins to develop. It is located in the tissue, which has accumulated a lot of nutrients. The tissue itself is called primary endospermia.
Adult fruits
Mature fruits of a coniferous tree have an ovoid-conical shape. They are heavier than female first year pine cones. If you move apart the sticky scales of mature seedlings, you can find noticeable thickenings of an earthy color.
These are shields with curved down edges. Pine cone seeds have transparent wings, with which theycarried by the wind. At first glance, all the fruits of coniferous trees are the same.
But if you look closely, there are differences between the cones. For example, if we compare pine and spruce, then the shape of the first is more rounded. The length of the pine fruit is less than the spruce. The density of the pine cone differs from that of other conifers. They are heavier than the fruits of spruce or larch.
Where pine fruits are used
The most valuable thing that coniferous fruit can give is medicinal raw materials. In the circle of traditional healers, balms and tinctures are prepared from pine cones. They make fragrant jam. To do this, collect small green pine cones no more than 4 centimeters long.
It is recommended to stock up on pine fruits from May to June. During the collection, you should pay attention to the condition of the tree itself. If it is infested with insects, then it is best not to collect cones from such a pine tree.
Making jam
In fact, there are several recipes for making a sweet and healing treat from pine cones. We will consider the most common option. So, first we prepare the ingredients for work.
We will need 1 kg of sugar, 10 glasses of water and 1 kg of cones. We wash the fruits in cold water. Then we put them in a deep container, fill it with water. It should cover the fruit 2 centimeters from the top.
Be sure to close the lid on the dishes and boil the contents for half an hour. Then leave the brew in a dark place for 12 hours. After the mass has been infused, the cones should be separated from the solution.
Onthis time it will be green. Mix the liquid with sugar in equal proportions. This mass should be simmered until it begins to spread.
Finally, add a few cones and cook the mass for another 5 minutes. Beautiful and he althy jam is ready! It has a juicy raspberry color. It remains to pour the mass into jars and enjoy a delicious delicacy throughout the cold season!
Pine cone jam is useful for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and inflammation of the respiratory tract. Also recommended for people with general exhaustion of the body.
Useful properties of pine cones
In folk medicine, raw materials from coniferous fruit are used for low hemoglobin, polyarthritis, pneumonia, beriberi, acute respiratory diseases.
Cones pollen contains essential oil, carotene, ascorbic and resin acids. Due to their medicinal properties, a large number of medicinal recipes are devoted to pine fruits.
For example, for bronchitis and other colds, you should take one tablespoon of crushed cones and pour half a liter of hot water. This tincture should be kept for 12 hours, then drink a little during the day before meals.
Another drug rich in medicinal properties is used for diseases of the bones, joints and broncho-pulmonary inflammation. This is how this tincture is prepared: cut 10 pieces of green cones into a suitable container, pour 1 liter of vodka and close tightly.
Insist should be 40 days, not forgetting to shake. If you do this regularly, then the beneficial propertiescones saturate the liquid faster. After the expiration date, strain the resulting drug.
The tincture should be reddish brown. The use of such a medicine is possible not only for oral administration, but also for local rubbing.
Preparations from coniferous fruits - first helpers
Pine cone tincture is an excellent cough remedy. If you haven't added them to your treatment yet, now is the time to do so. To prepare the tincture, you need to take 50 grams of green pine cones for 2 cups of boiling water.
First pour the fruit with water, then insist for 2-3 hours in a warm place. Strain the resulting infusion through a gauze filter. If the drug is being prepared for a child, then to improve the taste, you can add 500 grams of granulated sugar to the infusion and cook until a viscous syrup is obtained. Delicious and curative preparation is ready! It is recommended to take 5-6 tablespoons daily.
For those patients who are overcome by a cough, folk healers are advised to pour 5 pine cones with a glass of boiling water, cover the infusion with a warm cloth and insist for 40-45 minutes. Take 2-3 sips when you start to cough.
Also, the therapeutic effect can be obtained with the help of inhalations. To do this, take a spacious dish, boil 1 liter of water in it and add 5-6 pre-washed pine cones.
Boil them for 5 minutes over low heat with the lid closed. Then turn off the gas, open the lid slightly, release the steam slightly. Next, you need to bend over the dishes, covered with a towel.
Take inhalationswithin 10 minutes. This method works great for nasal congestion, has anti-inflammatory and bactericidal properties.
Healing infusions
For the prevention or recovery after a stroke, an infusion of pine gifts is excellent: five mature cones pour 250 g of alcohol (70%). Infuse for 10 days at room temperature, strain and add 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to the resulting infusion.
This medication is recommended to be taken once after meals for six months. To relieve swelling of the joints with polyarthritis, you can prepare a bath solution. Take equal proportions of cones, water and boil in a deep container for about half an hour.
Then remove from heat, let the broth brew for 12 hours, strain. You should get a brown liquid with a wonderful coniferous aroma! For the full volume of a standard bath, you will need 2 liters of miraculous infusion. It is recommended to take warm baths for 15 to 20 minutes. This treatment should be continued until the pain subsides.
The immune system and pine cones
Unfortunately, with age, the human immune system weakens. Increasingly, it is difficult to overcome infectious diseases. The body gets old.
However, scientists believe that it is possible to stop the degradation of the immune system. It has been proven that the extract and decoction of pine cones are able to perfectly resist the influence of harmful viruses and bacteria.
Therefore, these drugs can renew a person's immune system, allowing him to keep his body in good shape. Therefore, it is recommendedat least once a year for prevention, use drugs made from pine cones.
Despite their widespread use in traditional medicine, a preliminary consultation with a doctor is still necessary. Contraindications: Pine cones treatment should be taken with caution to those people who suffer from kidney disease, allergic reactions, pregnant and lactating mothers.
Pine Fruit Balm
It's not fair to bypass this medicinal alcoholic drink. It is valued as a sedative and tonic. Usually the balm recipe includes a mixture of various medicinal raw materials.
In this case, consider the preparation of the drug from pine cones and needles. It should be noted that the manufacture of balm is a laborious process and requires meticulous fulfillment of all requirements. However, if you wish, it is quite possible to get a balm from coniferous gifts of nature at home.
So, you should take 3 tablespoons of crushed raw pine cones and 1.5 tablespoons of pine needles. Mix the components, place them in a glass jar and pour 500 milliliters of 70% alcohol.
Close the container with a tight lid and put in a dark place. After 30 days, strain the resulting infusion, add 2-3 tablespoons of any berry syrup and leave for about 3 more days.
Ideally, you should get a brown infusion with a tart taste and a pleasant aroma. It should be noted that all balms are used in small dosages. Most often they are added 1-2 teaspoons in coffee, tea, mineral water. These are immune-boosting drugs with preventive properties against inflammatory and viral diseases.
Interesting about cones
Admirers of esotericism attribute unusual properties to the fruits of coniferous trees. For example, it is believed that if you keep pine cones in a living room, then the energy of the house is cleansed.
Households are not threatened by the evil eye and other negative phenomena. Along with this, the bactericidal properties of coniferous fruits prevent people from developing respiratory diseases.
And holding a pine cone in your hands for a few minutes, you can get rid of the negative energy that has accumulated over the whole day. After that, the pine fruit should be discarded.
It is also good to apply wonderful pine gifts to bruised places. They are great for pain relief. Few people suspect that pine seed is an excellent natural massager for the back and feet.
Make it accessible to everyone! To do this, you need to collect slightly ajar mature pine cones, dry well. Put them in a box and step on them while sitting on a chair.
By the same principle, you can massage your back. Only the bumps should be laid out on the rug, and then lie down on them with blue. For those with very sensitive skin, it is recommended to cover the pine fruit with a medium-weight cloth.
Pine cones are not only in medicine
What beautiful decorations and crafts you can make with pine cones! Nature has rewarded this fruit with a beautiful shape. It remains only to dream a little and open foryourself a great decoration item - pine cones!
The photo clearly demonstrates that the gift of a coniferous tree can be covered with gold artistic varnish. Or amaze the imagination of others by painting the cones with bright acrylic paints. If you make beautiful ribbons for such products, you will get unusual toys for the Christmas tree for the New Year.
Original picture frames, candlesticks, children's compositions made of pine cones retain their texture and original appearance for a long time. Such creative products give others the scent of coniferous wood and high spirits!
