White pines produce soft cones, which fall in autumn and early winter.
The pine trees throughout the gardens at Mt. Cuba Center have been dropping an abundance of cones this year, providing a windfall of material to incorporate into holiday decorations from Thanksgiving through the New Year.
However, form follows function. What we see as festive decorations is actually part of an efficient method of reproduction - nature's distribution system. Let's explore the world of cones and the plants that they grow on.
The purpose of a cone is to provide the best survival and dispersal mechanism for the seeds inside it. Some cones only open under specific environmental ...