A Tale Of Two Pinecones

A couple weekends ago my mom and I were walking my parents’ two acre yard with my son. He was loving the grassy freedom; his little knees were stepping high as he jogged from one new sight to another. Now, I have to explain that scattered around the yard are pine trees of various sizes. You know those little pre-decorated trees that are sold in plastic plant pots wrapped with Christmas-y cellophane in grocery stores? We used to buy one each year when I was a kid and yep, my parents spared their lives by planting them at the end of the season. Well, as we passed by one of the smaller, skinnier trees, my mom found an incredibly large pinecone resting below it on the ground. We looked at the pinecone. We looked at the tree. Dang, that tree sure knew how to grow ‘em. Later in our walk we passed by one of the bigger, brawnier trees, and reclining daintily on the ground below that tree was this little bitty, “gee aren’t you cute” pinecone. Interesting.

Later, my mom shared our story with my dad and husband. We were all snickering at the ridiculousness of the puny tree that birthed a giant pinecone, and the pitiful attempt of the hulking giant. But here’s the real punch line of the story: a few days earlier my dad had found the large pinecone in the yard and had thrown it under the tiny tree, on purpose. Yeah, my dad loves a good chuckle.

So, I shared that information in order to have a reason to share this information: pinecones have gender! Who knew? Well, I guess the cones know, and all the tree experts out there. It makes sense, really. The average flower has both boy and girl parts so that it can self-reproduce. Why then wouldn’t the average pine tree have boy and girl cones? According to this website, male cones “are clustered, are much smaller and deteriorate quickly. They really shouldn't be called cones, although there is not a good common term for them”, and female cones are the true pinecones that we usually see. The male cones release pollen, which fertilizes the ovules in the female ones. So, next time you pick up a fallen pinecone, please handle her gently; she may just be in the family way.