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Looks like the fertile frond of an ostrich fern. If you know where you found it, go back in another couple weeks (who knows, this year - now?) and look for fiddle heads! They should be hairless and have a deep groove on the inside edge of the stalk, a U-shape in cross-section.
frond:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ostr...
ostrich fern fiddlehead:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ostr...
You're got another few tinder conk photos there.
Try Cirsium horridulum.
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/gall...
And you're welcome, J. It's been fun.
I see what you mean. That page is about a dwarf white pine cultivar, which only gets 20 feet high, and wouldn't be in a big stand. But at that link your point is that the mature cones look just like native Pinus strobus cones, and the immature cones look just like yours. I learned something: I think of immature Pinus strobus cones as looking like this: http://www.nhptv.org/wild/images/whitepi.... Even though the needles are oddly short for Pinus strobus, those photos, plus the fact that the cones are on half-inch stalks, and most important, have five needles and exist in a big stand in a part of the country where they are common lend creedance to Dag's ID of the native Pinus strobus. If the elder of these trees are head and shoulders above anything else, I'd agree with Dag. White pines are the tallest trees we've got.
J, cones from most pines, including limber pine, they'd be green if immature. The unopened mature cones really look like the limber pine that grows out West, as Lars suggested, but limber pine cones should be 3 to 6 inches. I found a limber pine that's often grown as an ornamental and was actually first sold in Jersey ('Vanderwolf's Pyramid') - seemed like a good lead and would explain the location, but that tree has 8-inch cones - obviously much to large. Really haven't found any other cones from US pines that look like this - again, except the limber pine, which should have much bigger cones (and 5 needles per fascicle - did you count them, by the way?).
Any chance this is an imported tree?
If the needles are 2 inches, then the cones are quite tiny - 1/2 inch?
Lars, yes, you're about the cones. Without more info, I'm stumped. Limber pine doesn't grow in this part of the country, and like white pine, it has five-needled clusters.
Look for little spikes and whitish stripes on the underside. It could be the most common one: Scots pine.
