A tree such as a pine, fir, spruce, cedar, or cypress: it has thin leaves like needles (or tiny scales) and grows brown cones that hold the seeds. Most conifers keep those leaves in winter, so a hillside of them stays green when broadleaf trees are bare. Though actually a few kinds, such as larch, do drop their needles — so “always green” is a useful picture, not a perfect rule. You use the word in science, geography, and nature writing; in casual talk people often just say pine tree, even when the tree is not a pine. A forest of these trees is a coniferous forest. In Taiwan you will know 松、杉、檜 as members of this group.