OCLC
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Incorporated d/b/a OCLC is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs". It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services. OCLC maintains the Dewey Decimal Classification system. OCLC began in 1967, as the Ohio College Library Center, through a collaboration of university presidents, vice presidents, library directors who wanted to create a cooperative computerized network for libraries in the state of Ohio; the group first met on July 5, 1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization, hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, to design the shared cataloging system.
Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The plan was to merge the catalogs of Ohio libraries electronically through a computer network and database to streamline operations, control costs, increase efficiency in library management, bringing libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the world's information in order to best serve researchers and scholars; the first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26, 1971. This was the first online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data. Between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the governance structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States.
As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with "networks", organizations that provided training and marketing services. By 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on the OCLC Members Council. During 2008, OCLC commissioned two studies to look at distribution channels. In early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic and full-text information to anyone. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from private libraries worldwide; the Open WorldCat program, launched in late 2003, exposed a subset of WorldCat records to Web users via popular Internet search and bookselling sites.
In October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. WikiD was phased out; the Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988. A browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013; until August 2009, when it was sold to Backstage Library Works, OCLC owned a preservation microfilm and digitization operation called the OCLC Preservation Service Center, with its principal office in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users; this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. Starting in 1971, OCLC produced catalog cards for members alongside its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, such as CONTENTdm for managing digital collections.
It offers the bibliographic discovery system WorldCat Discovery, which allows for library patrons to use a single search interface to access an institution's catalog, database subscriptions and more. OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications; these publications, including journal articles, reports and presentations, are available through the organization's website. OCLC Publications – Research articles from various journals including Code4Lib Journal, OCLC Research, Reference & User Services Quarterly, College & Research Libraries News, Art Libraries Journal, National Education Association Newsletter; the most recent publications are displayed first, all archived resources, starting in 1970, are available. Membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding. Newsletters – Current and archived newsletters for the library and archive community.
Presentations – Presentations from both guest speakers and OCLC research from conferences and other events. The presentations are organized into five categories: Conference presentations, Dewey presentations, Distinguished Seminar Series, Guest presentations, Research staff
Pinus sabiniana
Pinus sabiniana, with the common names gray pine, foothill pine, the more and internationally used digger pine, is a pine endemic to California in the United States. According to Conifers.org, "The terms'foothills pine' or'gray pine' are now preferred", other names exist. The Pinus sabiniana tree grows to 36–45 feet, but can reach 105 feet feet in height; the needles of the pine are in fascicles of three, distinctively pale gray-green and drooping, grow to 20–30 cm in length. The seed cones are large and heavy, 12–35 cm in length and as wide as they are long; when fresh, they weigh from 0.3 to 0.7 kilograms over 1 kilogram. The male cones grow at the base of shoots on the lower branches. Pinus sabiniana grows at elevations between sea level and 1,200 metres and is common in the northern and interior portions of the California Floristic Province, it is found throughout the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges foothills that ring the Central, San Joaquin and interior valleys. It is adapted to long, dry summers and is found in areas with an unusually wide range of precipitation: from an average of 250 mm per year at the edge of the Mojave to 1,780 mm in parts of the Sierra Nevada.
It prefers rocky, well drained soil, but grows in serpentine soil and heavy, poorly drained clay soils. It occurs in association with Quercus douglasii, "Oak/Foothill Pine vegetation" is used as a description of a type of habitat characteristic within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion in California, providing a sparse overstory above a canopy of the oak woodland. Pinus sabiniana needles are the only known food of the caterpillars of the Gelechiid moth Chionodes sabinianus. Fossil evidence suggests that it has only become adapted to the Mediterranean climate as its closest relatives are part of the Madrean pine-oak woodlands found at higher elevations in the southwest US and Mexico; some Indian groups relied on pine nuts for food and are thought to have contributed to the current distribution pattern, including the large gap in distribution in Tulare County. The name digger pine came from the observation that the Paiute foraged for its seeds by digging around the base of the tree, although it is more that the term was first applied to the people.
The more common name digger pine is still in widespread use. The Jepson Manual advises avoiding this name as the authors believe "digger" is pejorative in origin, it is sometimes thought of as a pinyon pine, though it does not belong to that group. The scientific botanical name with the standard spelling sabiniana commemorates Joseph Sabine, secretary of the Horticultural Society of London. In botanical nomenclature it is no longer customary to Latinize species names before forming Neo-Latin terms, so an orthographical correction was proposed from sabiniana to sabineana by some botanists; however the new spelling proposal has not been accepted by the United States Department of Agriculture National Plant Data Center or the University of California's "The Jepson Manual". Nor has it been adopted into general use, with the spelling sabiniana used in the pine's endemic range by the University of California and state agencies, in its home country's U. S. federal agencies. The USDA's Germplasm Resources Information Network database notes that the spelling sabiniana agrees with a provision in the Vienna Code of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the governing body of botanical nomenclature.
In that Code, Recommendation 60.2C states that personal names that are in Latin or Greek, or those that have a well-established Latinized form can remain Latinized in species epithets, otherwise species epithets must be orthographically corrected to the proper form. The GRIN database notes that Sabine's last name is not correctable and therefore Pinus sabiniana is the proper name for the species. Cole, James E.. The Cone-bearing Trees of Yosemite: Digger Pine. A. Farjon. Pines: Drawings and descriptions of the genus Pinus. Brill. ISBN 90-04-13916-8 Hogan, C. Michael. Stromberg, Nicklas, ed. "Blue Oak". GlobalTwitcher. Archived from the original on 2012-02-28. Discovery Channel, MythBusters, Episode 138 Beissner, Ludwig. Handbuch der Nadelholzkunde: Systematik, Verwendung und Kultur der Ginkgoaceen, Freiland- Coniferen und Gnetaceen. Für Gärtner, Forstleute und Botaniker. P. Parey. Chase, J. Smeaton. Cone-bearing Trees of the California Mountains. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. p. 99. LCCN 11004975. OCLC 3477527.
LCC QK495. C75 C4, with illustrations by Carl Eytel – Kurut, Gary F. "Carl Eytel: Southern California Desert Artist", California State Library Foundation, Bulletin No. 95, pp. 17-20 retrieved Nov. 13, 2011 Media related to Pinus sabiniana at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Pinus sabiniana at Wikispecies Jepson eFlora, The Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley USDA PLANTS Treatment for Pinus sabiniana Pinus sabiniana in the CalPhotos Photo Database, University of California, Berkeley
Central Coast (California)
The Central Coast is an area of California, United States spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of south of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. Six counties make up the Central Coast: from south-to north, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, Santa Cruz; the Central Coast is the location of the Central Coast American Viticultural Area. Note: the geographic center of the California coast is north of Santa Cruz, near Año Nuevo State Park; the Central Coast area was inhabited by Chumash and other Native American people since at least 10,000 BC. Many of these communities were coastal, where the people utilized marine resources and dwelt near freshwater inflows to the Pacific Ocean. For example, there were significant communities near the mouth of Los Osos Creek. Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo visited the Central Coast, landing in Santa Barbara County in 1542, having sailed from the south; the region is known for agriculture and tourism. Major crops include wine grapes, lettuce and artichokes.
The Salinas Valley is one of the most fertile farming regions in the United States. Tourist attractions include Cannery Row in Monterey, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the theatres and white sand beaches of Carmel-by-the-Sea, the golf courses of Pebble Beach and the Monterey Peninsula, the rugged coastline of Big Sur and Hearst Castle in San Simeon. Further south is Morro Rock and the port city of Morro Bay, adjacent to college town San Luis Obispo; the Santa Ynez Valley has become a hotbed for wine tasting, with towns such as Buellton, Los Olivos, Santa Ynez growing in popularity in recent years. It is home to the Central Coast Film Society, which celebrates filmmakers and media arts that are from the region known as "Hollywood's Backyard." The area is not densely populated. The largest city in the region is Oxnard in Ventura County, with a population estimated at 203,007 in 2013. University of California campuses are found in Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, near the south and north edges of the region respectively.
California State University, Monterey Bay, founded in 1994, uses facilities donated when Fort Ord was converted from military to civilian uses. California Polytechnic State University, in San Luis Obispo, was founded in 1901. California State University Channel Islands opened in Camarillo in 2002, as the 23rd campus in the California State University system; the six counties that make up the Central Coast region had an estimated population of 2,327,344 in 2014, about 5% more than the population of New Mexico. Travel is entirely by private automobile; because of its position halfway between the major cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, San Luis Obispo is home to America's first motel. The major highway is U. S. Route 101, which runs north-south from Los Angeles, through most of the major communities of the Central Coast, to San Francisco. State Route 1, a smaller but much more scenic route, connects the coastal communities, running through San Simeon, Morro Bay, Big Sur. Amtrak maintains train service with the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner routes along the Union Pacific Railroad Coast Line that transports freight.
There are no major airports, although Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo have regional airports with commuter service. Greyhound buses serve most of the region. Monterey-Salinas Transit operates bus services throughout Monterey County as far south as Big Sur on the coast and King City in the Salinas Valley. MST offers connection service to San Jose Diridon Station, downtown Santa Cruz, Paso Robles and Templeton in Northern San Luis Obispo County via regional routes. Santa Cruz Metro Offers services within Santa Cruz County, including connections to San Jose and San Jose State and connection to MST service in Watsonville, heading south to Salinas. Coastal California Big Sur Salinas Valley Monterey Peninsula Monterey county attractions Mission County Hearst Castle Avila Beach Carmel-by-the-Sea California State Route 1 Wine Regions Central California Coast Guide with Photos A comprehensive guide to California's Central Coast Central Coast California: wine, food & culture news & updates
Xeriscaping
Xeriscaping is the process of landscaping or gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for supplemental water from irrigation. It is promoted in regions that do not have accessible, plentiful, or reliable supplies of fresh water, is gaining acceptance in other regions as access to irrigation water is becoming limited. Xeriscaping may be an alternative to various types of traditional gardening. In some areas, terms as water-conserving landscapes, drought-tolerant landscaping, smart scaping are used instead. Plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local climate are emphasized, care is taken to avoid losing water to evaporation and run-off; the specific plants used in xeriscaping depend upon the climate. Xeriscaping is different from natural landscaping, because the emphasis in xeriscaping is on selection of plants for water conservation, not selecting native plants. Public perception of xeriscaping has been negative as many assume that these types of landscapes are ugly expanses of cactus and gravel.
However, studies have shown that education in water conservation practices in the landscape can improve the public's perception of xeriscaping. Denver Water coined the term xeriscape in 1981 by combining "landscape" with the Greek prefix xero-, from xeros, meaning dry; the term zero-scaping or zeroscaping is sometimes substituted for xeriscaping due to phonetic similarity. When used zero-scaping refers to a different type of low-water landscaping, devoid, or nearly devoid of plants; because the term was derived from the Greek root xeros, xeriscaping is sometimes misspelled xeroscaping. Lowered consumption of water: Xeriscaped landscapes can reduce water use 60% or more compared to regular lawn landscapes. Makes more water available for other domestic and community uses and the environment. Reduce Maintenance: Aside from occasional weeding and mulching Xeriscaping requires far less time and effort to maintain. Xeriscape plants in appropriate planting design, soil grading and mulching, takes full advantage of rainfall retention.
Less cost to maintain: Xeriscaping requires less fertilisers and equipment due to the reduced lawn areas. Reduced waste and pollution: Lawn clippings can contribute to organic waste in landfills and the use of heavy fertilizers contributes to urban runoff pollution. Reduce fertilizer use that help grow harmful algae Some homeowners associations have strict rules requiring a certain percentage of land to be used as lawns but these rules either have been or are in the process of being overturned in many areas. Conceived by Denver Water, the seven design principles of xeriscaping have since expanded into simple and applicable concepts to creating landscapes that use less water; the principles are appropriate for multiple regions and can serve as a guide to creating a water conserving landscape, regionally appropriate and since they were conceived for homeowners they are easy to implement. 1. Plan and design: Create a diagram, drawn to scale, that shows the major elements of the landscape, including house, sidewalk, deck or patio, existing trees and other elements.
Once a base plan of an existing site has been determined, the creation of a conceptual plan that shows the areas for turf, perennial beds, screens, etc. is undertaken. Once finished, the development of a planting plan that reinforces the areas in the appropriate scale is done. 2. Soil amendment – Most plants will benefit from the use of compost, which will help the soil retain water; some desert plants prefer gravel soils instead of well-amended soils. Plants should either fit the soil should be amended to fit the plants. 3. Efficient irrigation: Xeriscape can be irrigated efficiently by hand or with an automatic sprinkler system. Zone turf areas separately from other plants and use the irrigation method that waters the plants in each area most efficiently. For grass, use gear-driven rotors or rotary spray nozzles that have larger droplets and low angles to avoid wind drift. Spray, drip line or bubbler emitters are most efficient for watering trees, shrubs and groundcovers. If watering by hand, avoid oscillating sprinklers and other sprinklers that throw water high in the air or release a fine mist.
The most efficient sprinklers release big drops close to the ground. Water and infrequently to develop deep roots. Never water during the day to reduce water lost to evaporation. With the use of automatic sprinkling systems, adjust the controller monthly to accommodate weather conditions. Install a rain sensor to shut off the device when it rains.4. Appropriate plant and zone selection: Different areas in a yard receive different amounts of light and moisture. To minimize water waste, group together plants with similar light and water requirements, place them in an area that matches these requirements. Put moderate-water-use plants in low-lying drainage areas, near downspouts, or in the shade of other plants. Turf requires the most water and shrub/perennial beds will require half the amount of water. Dry, sunny areas support low-water-use plants. Planting a variety of plants with different heights and textures creates interest and beauty.5. Mulch: Mulch keeps plant roots cool, prevents soil from crusting, minimizes evaporation and reduces weed growth.
Organic mulches, such as bark chips, pole peelings or wood grindings, should be applied 2 to 4 inches deep. Fiber mulches create a web, more resistant to wind and rain washout. Inorganic mulches, such as rocks and gravel, should be applied 2 to 3 inches deep. Surrounding plants with rock makes the area hotter. Limited turf areas: Native g
Botany
Botany called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist; the term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning "pasture", "grass", or "fodder". Traditionally, botany has included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists study 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and cultivate – edible and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Medieval physic gardens attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance, they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards.
One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden. These gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, led in 1753 to the binomial system of Carl Linnaeus that remains in use to this day. In the 19th and 20th centuries, new techniques were developed for the study of plants, including methods of optical microscopy and live cell imaging, electron microscopy, analysis of chromosome number, plant chemistry and the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins. In the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science and technology. Research topics include the study of plant structure and differentiation, reproduction and primary metabolism, chemical products, diseases, evolutionary relationships and plant taxonomy.
Dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botanical research has diverse applications in providing staple foods, materials such as timber, rubber and drugs, in modern horticulture and forestry, plant propagation and genetic modification, in the synthesis of chemicals and raw materials for construction and energy production, in environmental management, the maintenance of biodiversity. Botany originated as the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties. Many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago; this early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, which make up much of the Cherokee land today. The early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early botanical works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings, in works from China before it was unified in 221 BC.
Modern botany traces its roots back to Ancient Greece to Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle who invented and described many of its principles and is regarded in the scientific community as the "Father of Botany". His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to botanical science until the Middle Ages seventeen centuries later. Another work from Ancient Greece that made an early impact on botany is De Materia Medica, a five-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine written in the middle of the first century by Greek physician and pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides. De Materia Medica was read for more than 1,500 years. Important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī's the Book of Plants, Ibn Bassal's The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner. In the mid-16th century, "botanical gardens" were founded in a number of Italian universities – the Padua botanical garden in 1545 is considered to be the first, still in its original location.
These gardens continued the practical value of earlier "physic gardens" associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject. Lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much to northern Europe. Throughout this period, botany remained subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of "the three German fathers of botany", along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock. Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification. Physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium
Plant community
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant community are influenced by soil type, topography and human disturbance. In many cases there are several soil types within a given phytocoenosis. A plant community can be described floristically and/or physiognomically. For example, a forest includes the overstory, or upper tree layer of the canopy, as well as the understory, further subdivided into the shrub layer, herbaceous layer, sometimes moss layer. In some cases of complex forests there is a well-defined lower tree layer. A plant community is similar in concept to a vegetation type, with the former having more of an emphasis on the ecological association of species within it, the latter on overall appearance by which it is recognized by a layperson. A plant community can be rare if none of the major species defining it are rare.
This is because it is the association of species and relationship to their environment that may be rare. An example is the Sycamore Alluvial Woodland in California dominated by the California sycamore Platanus racemosa; the community is rare, being localized to a small area of California and existing nowhere else, yet the California sycamore is not a rare tree in California. An example is a grassland on the northern Caucasus Steppes, where common grass species found are Festuca sulcata and Poa bulbosa. A common sedge in this grassland phytocoenosis is Carex shreberi. Other representative forbs occurring in these steppe grasslands are Artemisia austriaca and Polygonum aviculare. An example of a three tiered plant community is in Central Westland of New Zealand; these forests are the most extensive continuous reaches of podocarp/broadleaf forests in that country. The overstory includes miro and mountain totara; the mid-story includes tree ferns such as Cyathea smithii and Dicksonia squarrosa, whilst the lowest tier and epiphytic associates include Asplenium polyodon, Tmesipteris tannensis, Astelia solandri and Blechnum discolor.
Community Association size-asymmetric competition Ecosystem Habitat Phytosociology Salt Marsh Stand level modelling Jean-Michel Gobat, Michel Aragno, Willy Matthey and V. A. K. Sarma, and Watermelon 2004. The living soil C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Crown Fern: Blechnum discolor, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg J. M. Suttie, Stephen G. Reynolds and Caterina Batello. 2005. Grasslands of the world and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 514 pages
Conifer cone
A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone; the male cones, which produce pollen, are herbaceous and much less conspicuous at full maturity. The name "cone" derives from the fact; the individual plates of a cone are known as scales. The male cone is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways from species to species. Extending out from a central axis are microsporophylls. Under each microsporophyll is several microsporangia; the female cone contains ovules. The female cone structure varies more markedly between the different conifer families, is crucial for the identification of many species of conifers; the members of the pine family have cones. These pine cones the woody female cones, are considered the "archetypal" tree cones; the female cone has two types of scale: the bract scales, the seed scales, one subtended by each bract scale, derived from a modified branchlet. On the upper-side base of each seed scale are two ovules that develop into seeds after fertilization by pollen grains.
The bract scales develop first, are conspicuous at the time of pollination. The scales open temporarily to receive gametophytes close during fertilization and maturation, re-open again at maturity to allow the seed to escape. Maturation takes 6–8 months from pollination in most Pinaceae genera, but 12 months in cedars and 18–24 months in most pines; the cones open either by the seed scales flexing back when they dry out, or by the cones disintegrating with the seed scales falling off. The cones are conic, cylindrical or ovoid, small to large, from 2–60 cm long and 1–20 cm broad. After ripening, the opening of non-serotinous pine cones is associated with their moisture content—cones are open when dry and closed when wet; this assures that the small, wind disseminated seeds will be dispersed during dry weather, thus, the distance traveled from the parent tree will be enhanced. A pine cone will go through many cycles of opening and closing during its life span after seed dispersal is complete; this process occurs with older cones while attached to branches and after the older cones have fallen to the forest floor.
The condition of fallen pine cones is a crude indication of the forest floor's moisture content, an important indication of wildfire risk. Closed cones indicate damp conditions; as a result of this, pine cones have been used by people in temperate climates to predict dry and wet weather hanging a harvested pine cone from some string outside to measure the humidity of the air. Members of the Araucariaceae have the bract and seed scales fused, have only one ovule on each scale; the cones are spherical or nearly so, large to large, 5–30 cm diameter, mature in 18 months. In Agathis, the seeds are winged and separate from the seed scale, but in the other two genera, the seed is wingless and fused to the scale; the cones of the Podocarpaceae are similar in function, though not in development, to those of the Taxaceae, being berry-like with the scales modified, evolved to attract birds into dispersing the seeds. In most of the genera, two to ten or more scales are fused together into a swollen, brightly coloured, edible fleshy aril.
Only one or two scales at the apex of the cone are fertile, each bearing a single wingless seed, but in Saxegothaea several scales may be fertile. The fleshy scale complex is 0.5–3 cm long, the seeds 4–10 mm long. In some genera, the scales are minute and not fleshy, but the seed coat develops a fleshy layer instead, the cone having the appearance of one to three small plums on a central stem; the seeds have a hard coat evolved to resist digestion in the bird's stomach. Members of the cypress family differ in that the bract and seed scales are fused, with the bract visible as no more than a small lump or spine on the scale; the botanical term galbulus is sometimes used instead of strobilus for members of this family. The female cones have one to 20 ovules on each scale, they have peltate scales, as opposed to the imbricate cones described above, though some have imbricate scales. The cones are small, 0.3–6 cm or 1⁄8–2 3⁄8 inches long, spherical or nearly so, like those of Nootka cypress, while others, such as western redcedar and California incense-cedar, are narrow.
The scales are arranged either spirally, or in decussate whorls of two or three four. The genera with spiral scale arrangement were treated in a separate family in the past. In most of the genera, the cones are woody and the seeds have two narrow wings, but in three genera, the seeds are wingless, in Juniperus, the cones are fleshy and
