Chinese medicine Pinesong is the cone of the pine family plants Qilian Cold Fir and Bashan Cold Fir. The cones of Pinesong are cylindrical or ovate-cylindrical, while Qilian Cold Fir and Bashan Cold Fir are distributed in different areas.
Qilian Cold Fir
Qilian Cold Fir, also known as Cong Tree or Shaanxi Cold Fir, is an evergreen tree that can grow up to 50 meters tall. The one-year-old branches are pale yellowish-gray, pale yellow or pale brownish-yellow, without hair or sparsely hairy in grooves; the winter buds are conical and resinous.
The leaves are arranged in nearly two rows on the branches, linear in shape, 1.5-4.8cm long, dark green on the upper surface, with two white stomatal bands on the lower surface; the tips of the leaves on the fruit branches are pointed or blunt, resin ducts are in the middle or near the middle, the tips of the nutritive branches and young leaves are 2-lobed or slightly concave, and the resin ducts are marginal.
The cones are cylindrical or ovate-cylindrical, 7-11cm long, 3-4cm in diameter, nearly stalkless, green when young and brown when mature; the middle scales are kidney-shaped, about 1.5cm long and about 2.5cm wide, with densely short hairs on the exposed part of the scale back;
The bract scales are about 3/4 as long as the seed scales, not exposed, with a round upper part, finely serrated edges, and a short pointed tip in the center; the seeds are longer than the winged seeds, inversely triangular-elliptic in shape, and the wings are large and inversely triangular.
Bashan Cold Fir
Bashan Cold Fir, also known as Emei Cold Fir, Taibai Cold Fir, Sichuan Cong, Taohe River Cold Fir, Sichuan Cold Fir, and Songmo, is a tree that can grow up to 40 meters tall. The bark is rough, dark gray or dark grayish-brown, and chunky and cracked.
The one-year-old branches are reddish-brown or brown, slightly grooved, without hair, and sparsely hairy in the grooves. The leaves are linear, arranged in two rows under the branches, 1.5-3cm long, 1.5-4mm wide, blunt or slightly concave or pointed at the tip, concave down on the upper surface along the midrib, glossy, and with two pale white stomatal bands on both sides below the midrib; the transverse section has two resin ducts, located in the middle.
The male and female flowers are on the same tree, and the male cones are oblong and drooping. The cones are erect, cylindrical or elongated cylindrical, 5-8cm long, 3-4cm in diameter, single leaf axil, dark purple-black heart, bract scales inverted ovate-wedge-shaped, upper part round, finely serrated edges, acute tip slightly exposed. The seeds are inversely triangular-ovate, with membranous wings at the upper end.
