Norfolk Island pine's description
It is a slow growing tree, reaching a height of 50m–65 m, with straight vertical trunks and symmetrical branches, even in the face of incessant onshore winds that can contort most other species. From the straight trunk, it emits its branches almost horizontal or slightly oblique, in number of five, forming floors; the plane of each floor is a perfect pentagon. If kept indoors, the tree remains smaller. The gray-brown bark falls off in fine scales. At the more or less horizontal to sometimes hanging branches, the branches are four to seven in regular whorls. The young leaves are soft and awl-shaped, 1–1.5 cm long, about 1 mm thick at the base on young trees, and incurved, 5–10 mm long and variably 2–4 mm broad on older trees. The thickest, scale-like leaves on coning branches are in the upper crown. The cones are squat globose, 10–12 cm long and 12–14 cm diameter, and take about 18 months to mature. They disintegrate at maturity to release the nut-like edible seeds. The seeds have a length of 2.5 to 3 cm and a diameter of about 1.2 cm with wide wings. There are four cotyledons present. It is a dioecious tree (male and female flowers in different plants), although it can also be monoecious. The scientific name heterophylla ("different leaves") derives from the variation in the leaves between young and adult plants.
