Just A Pine Cone Trying To Have Sex...

Picture Location

• Montana, Louis and Clark Caverns Tour

Time Of Year Picture Was Taken

• Appox. July 1st

Camera And Lens Used

• Canon EOS Rebel T5 W/ EFS 18-55mm

I had just finished my cave tour and I saw this cone hanging on a pine tree on the edge of the slanted slope. I had snapped the photo without much thought and I was pleased with the results. I am from the midwest and we have plenty of pines but we do not have much of this particular variety of pine.

It wasn't until months later that I realized what I actually took a picture of. I was looking at this picture and I just had the thought "I wonder why the pine cone puts out sap like that?" This is kind of how my brain works, which leads me to figuring out why things work the way they do, I enjoy it. My initial thought was that pine trees themselves put out sap as a defensive measure. If you stab a pine tree with a knife, it will bleed sap and essentially "scab" over that wound and protect itself. That didn't seem like it would serve the same purpose with a pine cone, so to google I went.

I searched and I found that the pine cone actually puts out sap the catch pollen to fertilize the seeds that are created within the pine cone. The wind will blow pollen from another tree or another part of the tree and pollinate this pine cone. Later in the year it will turn brown and fall to the ground with hopes of being buried either naturally or by a critter.

Little did I know, I was actually photographing a pine cone trying to get laid... errr, fertilized. A stump trying to hump...LOL... A cone trying to bone. Ok enough bad jokes. But seriously, nature is beatiful and mother nature is loving. Take care of her. Thanks for reading!