Pine cones provide food, fashion & fun

The term ‘pine cone’ is used to describe any cone from a conifer. Conifers are evergreen trees that bear cones. There are many types of trees with cones.  The types of trees are: spruce, fir, pine, hemlock, and cedar. Each evergreen tree has two distinct types of cones. There is a male cone and a female cone. The hardened, dark brown cones are the females. The female cones consist of a woody stalk surrounded by stiff, overlapping, shingle-like scales. Each scale has a bract behind it, which is a small modified leaf. On some trees, the bract is hidden within the cone, while on others, like the western Douglas fir cones, the bracts extend way out beyond each scale.  The smaller, quite inconspicuous cones that grow either singly or in clusters are the male cones. They are the pollen cones. After these cones release their pollen in the spring, they wither and die.

I would like to mention here a cone-bearing tree that is both coniferous and deciduous. It is the Tamarack larch. It’s a small to medium sized tree with needle-like leaves that turn bright yellow before they fall off in autumn. The cones are small and release their seeds four to six moths after pollination. This tree is extremely cold tolerant. The wood of the Tamarack larch is durable and tough and was used by north-eastern Native people to make snowshoes and other things where toughness was a necessity.

Each species of cone-bearing trees has a unique timetable for flower development, pollination, and cone maturation. Some pines take two years to mature, while others mature in the same year they are fertilized. The pine buds begin to grow in the spring. These buds produce male cones in clusters at the base of new twigs. The female cones appear much later than the male cones.  Each small gumdrop-sized, soft, green female cone is tinged with a purplish red color. Its scales are slightly separated. When the tree is ready to be pollinated, the female cones secrete small amounts of a fluid that collects in the narrow crevices of its scales. At the same time, the now mature male pine cone releases its yellow pollen.

These plants rely on wind pollination. The fine dust-like pollen floats on the wind with some landing on the waiting female cones.  Each evergreen tree produces a uniquely shaped pollen. This insures it will land and stay only on the female cone of its own species. The wind-borne pollen lands on the fluid within the female cones and gets trapped into the crevices where it rests on the two ovules at the base of each female’s cone scale. The fertilization in most evergreens is immediate.  However, it takes 13 months after the pollen is trapped for the Jack pine to become fertilized.

After pollination, the male cone withers and dies. The female cone grows and its scales thicken and become tightly pressed together. As it grows, the cone darkens, hardens, and encloses the developing seed. When the cone is mature and ready, the cone dries out, pops open, and releases two seeds per scale. Each has a tiny wing to guide its flight. Every species of evergreen disperses their seeds in different ways.  White pines open and drop their seeds in their second summer, while some Jack pines may wait 10-20 years and open when exposed to intense fire. Black spruce cones mature in one year, but sometimes remain on the tree for several years releasing a few seeds each year. White spruce cones open and release their seeds the fall of their first winter. Balsam fir cones, when they mature, a few scales and seeds flake off over a period of several days. When they are finished a bare cone is left on the tree. This particular method of seed dispersal is welcomed by birds such as the red-breasted nuthatches who can easily extract the balsam fir seeds.

Pine cones are built to protect their seeds. Pine cones provide food for some animals like squirrels and some birds.  Squirrels, especially the red squirrels like to eat the seeds of pine cones. Pine cone seeds are a major part of their diet. The squirrel methodically strips the seeds from the cone by rotating the cone in its front paws and nibbling the seeds line by line. Amazingly, a single squirrel can eat its way through 40,000 pine cones in one year!  The cone’s protective structure insures that although many get eaten and destroyed, enough cones will survive to be able to disperse their seeds. 

The further away from the parent tree the cones go the better their survival rate. If they grow near the parent tree, they will struggle to survive, as the parent tree’s roots will take up all of the available water. The evergreen trees put all of their seeds into their cones so many can end up far from the parent tree.  The cones travel away from the parent tree by bouncing, rolling, floating, or from an animal carrying it away. Nature has many methods of dispersal that include, wind, fire, water, and animal.

Seed-bearing cones respond to changes in relative humidity. The scales of the cone open up when it is dry, and close when it is damp. Researchers in the fashion field are in the process of developing a type of ‘smart’ clothing.  They have drawn upon nature to come up with an idea by looking at how pine cones react to lack of moisture by opening.  The clothing uses micro technology to let air in to cool a wearer when it’s hot and shut out air when it is cold. The clothing can keep the wearer comfortable in all types of weather. 

The researchers hope to fully develop this material in a few years. The smart garments consist of a top layer of tiny spikes of water-absorbent material, like wool. When the wearer gets hot and sweats, the tiny spikes react to the moisture and open up to allow air from the outside to get in and cool the wearer. The spikes close down when the wearer stops sweating thereby stopping the air from entering. The lower layer of material will not be porous; keeping rain from getting in whether the spikes are open or closed.

The clothing was chosen to represent UK science at the Expo 2005 in Japan. The theme of the Expo was Nature’s Wisdom. The new smart clothing makes the wearer’s lives more comfortable because their clothing adjusts to their body temperature. The smart garments eliminate the ‘being too warm or too hot’ when temperatures fluctuate. There will no longer be a need to put a piece of clothing on and off to adjust to temperatures. The material can be used for a variety of clothes: coats, hats, gloves, shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, and more.

Pine cones have many uses. They are food for wildlife, and they can even be eaten by humans. The young male cones, which grow only in the spring, are an excellent survival food. They can be boiled or baked.  Our elders have told us that pine cones can also indicate the type of winter weather we can expect. If you look at the pine trees here at Akwesasne this year, you will notice that there are a lot of cones very high up in the trees. It is said this is so the cones will be more accessible during a winter of very deep snow. I guess we will have to wait until winter to see if this is true. Pine cones are also said to forecast the weather because the changes in air humidity will make the scales of a pine cone close before a storm arrives.  Pine cones are wonderful things to collect and use to make crafts and useful items. It is always nice to take a fall nature walk to collect pine cones.  If this is something you will be doing sometime, the following is important information to clip and save.

To remove pitch/sap from clothes on small areas use an ice cube to freeze the sap until it’s hard.  Then peel off the pitch. Pieces of clothing, like gloves etc., can be put into the freezer and when frozen, the pitch/sap comes off easily. Tree tea oil or WD40 works to remove stubborn spots of sap/pitch.  Be sure to rinse the oils off with a vinegar and water solution, and then hand wash before putting in the washer. Some people say that rubbing alcohol also works to remove pitch/sap.  I use hand sanitizer gel - the kind you can carry in your pocket. Carry one or more with you. It’s always a good idea for the person collecting the cones to wear light gardeners gloves. You will be glad you did.  Before using pitch/sap coated pine cones or displaying them it is a good idea to remove the pitch from them.  Place the pine cones on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake them at 220 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the pitch melts.  When you bake the cones it also takes care of any insects or molds and fungus that may be on them. Do not bake wet cones as it tends to make the cones very brittle and it also ruins their colors.

The following are a few interesting facts about pine cones. In 1895 the state of Maine designated the white pine cone and tassel as their state flower. The Pokemon character, Pineco is based on a pine cone. Since a pine cone has a unique mass distribution and aerodynamical quality, it is used in a game called pine cone golf.  They are hit with a gold club, or can be kicked around.  There are so many things you can make from pine cones, from wreathes for the front door to cute and strange animals. They are also useful as tinder.

My Ista, when I went to Law school, made at Christmas time, pine cone people for all of my Native Law School friends. Each cone person she made was creative and hilarious, and my friends appreciated and got a kick out of them. Each cone person stood on large comical felt covered cardboard feet. One friend was always on her cell phone so she had a cell phone created out of cardboard to her ear. One friend always wore a flannel shirt, and so my Ista made one and put it on his pine cone. One friend had a Mohawk haircut, one had curly hair and these items and others were used to characterize each person. They all had those plastic googly eyes. Some were made from long cones for the tall people to short round cones for the short round people.  The deer pictured with this story was made by me with pine cones I collected in Kana:takon this past Sunday. The antlers are from two maple tree’s, now bare, polynose stems. The ears and tail are pine cone scales.  The legs are made from maple tree twigs. If you would like make some pine cone people, animals, or other crafts, see the following Websites:

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/snowpeople/l/blpinecsnowman.htm

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/squirrelcrafts/ss/pcsquirrel.htm

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/birdfeeders/ht/PineConeFeeder.htm

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/pineconecrafts/l/blpinecwreath.htm

I will close with a pine cone joke -  Q. What do you get when a pig eats a pine cone?

A. A Pork-U-Pine!

Pine Cone Deer