A Baby Conifer Cone 赤ちゃん松かさ

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I wrote about green female conifer cones in August, and I thought at that time I learned everything about the cones, but I was wrong. Now I've learned that the pine tree produces male and female flowers (or strobili) and that the female flowers turn cones like the green ones I saw in August (or in the 3rd photo). In other words, all pine cones are female!   

So, you're looking at the growing process of pine cones from a newborn baby girl cone (1st photo), to cones like toddlers (2nd photo), then green young cones (3rd photo)!      

A newborn baby girl flower (or strobilus) 生まれたての雌花

Green Female Conifer Cone (Pinecone) 雌の緑松笠（松ぼっくり）

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

They're male and female conifer cones or pine cones. The green ones are female while the brown ones in the 2nd photo are male. I've seen many pine cones, but they were all brown, and I've never thought about their sex. The matcha green female pine cones are so beautiful!

Pine has male and female trees, and they're mostly monoecious. Naturally, this pine tree should have male and female pine cones on the same tree and voila! I've found bigger female pine cones and smaller male ones side by side!!

Chocolate vine, which I wrote about yesterday, is also monoecious, and has male and female flowers on the same vine. And you know what? A chocolate vine female flower is also bigger than the male one😁!!     

Female conifer cone 雌の松ぼっくり