How to Identify Conifers - Page 2 of 10
By Ed Strauss, Washington (photos and content)

These two micro photographs (Figures 1 & 2) are of fossil specimens at 40x magnification from the Pine Family (PINACEAE).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Sometimes fossils from this group, with good cell structure, can be further divided into the pine genus (Pinus) and the group containing all douglas fir, spruce and larch genera. These last three can be referred to as Piceoxylon or "spruce type". Pine usually has large singular evenly distributed resin ducts where as the "spruce type" usually has small ducts which appear in horizontal rows that are isolated and infrequent. The photos above are probably from the pine genus (Figure 2 is a little iffy).

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