Gray pine cone and pinenuts

Description:

Very heavy and wide; a falling cone full of seeds can knock out or kill someone under the tree when it falls.

Habitat:

Hot, dry oak savannah in the upper Sacramento Valley

Notes:

These cones came from the tree 3 years ago, and had been left outside since then, in heavy coastal rains. Only now that the weather has turned dry and "hot" (over 70 degrees) the last cone has opened and dropped its seeds. The pinenuts are important bead material for southwestern Oregon Indian regalia, and hence at Siletz Reservation..