The flowers are located at the base of the branches for male trees, or at their ends for female trees. The fruit are elongated cones, smaller than those of the pinaster, that open to release seeds with wings.

Humans and pine trees have a long common history: an offering table dating back to 2265 BC, exposed at the Louvre museum, mentions Cilicia pine oil, or hatet-âch. In mythology, the great goddess Cybele changed the young and handsome Phrygian Atys into a pine and, in medicine, Hippocrates prescribed pine resin against pneumonia. Arabic physicians recommended its use against ”lung ulcers”, an expression which may have referred to tuberculosis. As the tree is very widespread, the cure was inexpensive: in the ”Edict of Maximum” (301 AD), pine resin was estimated at twenty denerii per pound, i.e. five times less than Arabian saffron. ”Old wives’ medicine” recommended inhaling a decoction of buds to treat cold or sinusitis and gargling it to treat laryngitis. Both poets and authors have praised the legendary beauty of pine.