Conifers

Pines, cypresses and junipers are gymnosperms, which means 'naked seeds': they make seeds but have no flowers or fruit. They grow cones instead. Small male cones make pollen, which the wind carries to the larger, woody female cones, and the seeds form on the scales of the female cone, open to the air rather than shut inside a fruit. Most keep their needle- or scale-like leaves all winter. The cypress of Abarkuh in Yazd province is thought to be about 4,000 years old, one of the oldest living trees in the world.