Pinopsida

Conifers are a group of seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. They are mainly evergreen trees with a regular branching pattern, reproducing with male and female cones, usually on the same tree. They are wind-pollinated, and the seeds are usually dispersed by the wind. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta, also known as Coniferae. All extant conifers except for the Gnetophytes are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. There are over 600 living species. Conifers first appear in the fossil record over 300 million years ago, in the Carboniferous. They became dominant land plants in the Mesozoic, until the flowering plants took over many ecosystems in the Cretaceous. Many conifers today are relict species, surviving in a small part of their former ranges. Such relicts include Wollemia, known only from a small area of Australia, and Metasequoia glyptostroboides, known from Cretaceous fossils and surviving in a small area of China. Although the total number of species ......read more on Wikipedia.