Who doesn’t love a pine cone.  Some would argue they are not nearly as good as ice cream cones….  but I think I would rather have a pine cone.  To really look at a Pine Cone… oh… what a wonder they are.  So beautiful, to me.  Little Miracles.

All pine cones are not alike.  No way.  No how.  When it comes to size, the smallest cone measures approximately an inch.  THAT, my friends, is a tiny cone.   And it comes from the Canadian hemlock.  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Canadian Hemlock.  I’ve seen a Canadian Hockey Player in a Headlock  … but not a Hemlock.

The longest pine cone in the world comes from the Sugar Pine. Its cones can grow up to two feet long!

And then there’s the Big Fatty of them all.  That would be….. the Coulter pine cone. They’re named for Irish botanist Thomas Coulter. They can weigh up to 10 pounds! These big boys are found in southern California, mostly.

Keep reading.  This part is good.  There are BOY pine cones, and GIRL pine cones.  They mate.  Yeppers.  But get this.  The male cones are soft and small. They produce and release pollen, and then die.

Then… a good breeze comes along and carries the pollen to the soft, green, sticky female pine cones. There is a lot more to the whole process, but to me it sounds like a long distance relationship.  Or… phone sex.

But on to other things.

Some critters think the pine cone is a good thing to eat.   Red and gray squirrels, woodpeckers and crossbills all strip and snack on pine cones.   I am not crazy about them myself…. as a food source.  Although, with a little mustard, not so bad.    Although, a lot of people eat the seeds…  Pine Nuts.

To me, they sound like the thing that happens to evergreens… when they go crazy.  Pine Nuts.

So as you can tell… this is another part of the planet, filled with diversity and interest.  We simply need to look.  Or better yet… simply…. to see.

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” – C.S. Lewis