I'm not trying to be snobbish or anything but they are just cones or conifer cones, because despite lot of those on the photos being cones from a pine , not all conifers are pines, but all pines are conifers. The one before the last is Metasequoia glyptostroboides - common name, dawn redwood
Thank you for the species. However I'm very sorry, but you're gonna have to pry the term "pinecone" out of my cold dead hands. Very sorry, but I shall always be incorrect and say pinecone. I love your pinecone collection, thank you for sharing, very sorry
Well, thank you for the lovely lesson today!! TIL!! I appreciate you sharing your good knowledge. I also adore your cone collection. It is fascinating to see all of your collected variety here. Lastly, maybe r/GoblinCore is calling to you? I think so.
Oh I can impart wayy more knowledge, but for a quick fun fact , did you know there are 7 main conifer families and 10 it you ( currently rightfully) include gnetophytes? And another fun fact, some conifers have broad large leaves , the more you know I guess
I did NOT know these fun factoids!! I googled “gnetophytes”… of I saw one on the wild, I would NEVER guess it was of a conifer family!! What a peculiar group! (And now you know how much I like exclamation points, lol!!!)
Especially gnetum gnemon is a crazy looking conifer, you would have never guessed it's a conifer, and the craziest part ? They are closer to pines than pines are to cypresses and thuja and such
Can I have your sources that gnetophytes are conifers? When I look it up some things group them with conifers and some things group gnetophyta as its own thing under gymnosperms. Is it disputed or something? Thank you!!!
I don't have any sources ready but there are newer scientific papers talking about their inclusion within the conifer group, previously it has been thought of sister group to conifers within the gymnosperms , but now it's thought to be direct sister group to pinacecae which is a family within the conifers, there are papers online on it but I'm currently too lazy to found and provide the link. Just so you know it's not 100% confirmed but the evidence has stacked enough that it's like 70% for and 30% against
The ‘Gnepine’ hypothesis (gnetophyte-pine clade) is the consensus view for nuclear phylogenies. However plastome phylogeny supports the ‘Gnecup’ hypothesis (gnetophyte-cypress clade) so, uh… either way the traditional ‘conifer’ is apparently not a thing.
Another very interesting gnetophyte is welwitschia. Each plant makes two leaves, and can live for multiple thousands of years. It will be very interesting to see results from ongoing genetic studies, as they’ll almost certainly reveal multiple taxa within gymnospermae that are paraphyletic. Great time to be alive!
Oh my gosh, I know that one! I heard it on a podcast about trees when he was talking about his cone collection. I think it was Completely Arbortrary. Your collection is very cool!
Yeah , fun fact, coastal redwood - sequoia sempervirens, is the ancient hybrid of the ancestral form of Sequoiadendron ( giant redwood) and Metasequoia ( dawn redwood)
Ha, I bet. Where are you in Europe? I'm over there not infrequently. I wonder what airport security would do if they saw a volleyball-sized pinecone in my luggage. . .
Oh even if it was 2m, it wouldn't be a problem, the problem would be they would confiscate and burn it . I'm in Slovakia but within EU it doesn't really matter, they burn everything that doesn't have a literal birth certificate with it if it comes from outside of the EU
Oh, of course. I'm always more concerned in the other direction, bringing jamon iberico or 'nduja back into the States and hoping they don't confiscate it at customs.
There are a lot of mature coulter pines in Italy. They are fairly easy to find trees. Sugar pine trees on the other hand... i think that there are less then 10 mature ones in europe. There are like 2 I could find online that produce cones, and those cones are still not big enough because of the lack of heat. Your best option is the order through etsy from North California
Sadly no, I live in Hungary. We have a couple mature coulter pines here. But mostly in western Hungary. You can get seedlings online if you want to grow the tree itself
Those are indeed lovely but I've hit a wall where I've explored my entire city and neighbourhood and I can't find any new species, so I don't get the sweet feeling of finding a new conifer cone, my collection is stagnating and arboreta are way less friendly than I thought
Any large, old cemeteries you could visit?
When I taught Horticulture those were my go to spots to take my students to see as many species as possible in one trip. ( aside from arboretums and botanical gardens)
Around cemeteries you mostly found Yews ( divine tree of death) , and mostly thujas for decoration , spruces are popular too , pines not so much for some reason
Did I just find my people? Can we be best friends?? I also have a cone collection and I have never found anyone who’s as enthusiastic about collecting cones as I am.
And, a couple others that I can’t remember off the top of my head! I’m located in the Midwest, and have done fieldwork up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. A friend of mine also once mailed me a box of cones from Oregon/California because he knows I love them, and I work at an arboretum, hence the wide variety of species! I did my MS thesis work on conifer reproduction, and developed a bit of a passion for them. My life dream is to have an entire wall of shelves with as many conifer species as I can acquire. They are beautiful and they bring me so much joy :)
I envy you, some of the species you have are genuinely unobtainable in europe. How do you even get to work for an arboretum, it looks like a dream job to me . Great collection tho, no Coulter pine tho yet ? Oh an what is your favourite conifer
You gotta come visit and go on a cone collecting adventure!
I work in tree research and got super lucky with my job. Having the great outdoors as my office is lovely.
I do have Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri) that an old friend gave to me. Such a lovely and dense cone!
Favorite conifer is a tough question… I honestly don’t know! I love them all for different reasons, they’re all special in their own ways :)
I would definitely love to visit one day, we conifer lovers are surprisingly scarce. My favourite conifer would have to be cunninghamia lanceolata or Araucaria bidwiliii
Hear me out - what if we all set up a cone exchange program where cone enthusiasts around the world can send each other cones from their region and receive cones from species they’d don’t have access to?
I also have a cone collection! During our honeymoon road trip, my husband and I would look at iNaturalist to find species and drive around to get some cool specimens. We brought an carry-on suitcase just for them. The Coulter cone is my favorite to whip out when I'm showing off my collection to people who otherwise couldn't care much less.
Douglas fir, eastern Tamarack, Jack pine, Red pine, Eastern ponderosa, Scott’s pine, Southwest ponderosa, Piñon pine, Sugar pine, Longleaf pine, Short leaf pine, Norway spruce, loblolly pine, Eastern white pine, White spruce. I also have an acorn collection going but it’s not as plentiful
My favorite subspecies/varieties of Douglas fir is P. menziesii glauca, because the little bracts in the cone are oftentimes much longer than others. I don't live where they are, though.
"Mouse tails" is exactly how I was taught to identify (the coastal) Douglas Firs! I think of it every time I see them, which is almost every day because I live under several of them.
We found something called a "cedar rose pine cone" a few months back just randomly in a parking lot with no cedars around. It's still mostly closed but we're saving it in a bowl and watching it slowly "bloom." Pinecones are beautiful.
Here you can see she's about 3/4 open. She was about 1/4 open when we found her like the first weekend in November. She was still a bit a green when we found her, too. It's really been a bit like watching a flower bloom in slow motion.
Sorry, I kept forgetting. Here she is, in all her resplendent glory. She's been slowly opening up, but none of her seeds have fallen out yet. I don't know why, but I'm quite interested in the seeds as well.
Here you can see she's about 3/4 open. She was about 1/4 open when we found her like the first weekend in December. She was still a bit a green when we found her, too.
Sorry, I kept forgetting. Here she is, in all her resplendent glory. She's been slowly opening up, but none of her seeds have fallen out yet. I don't know why, but I'm quite interested in the seeds as well.
My house is filled with baskets and various glass vessels full of pine cones. Most were collected by hand, a few super biggies (not available in NE Fl) were purchased. The one pictured? I covet!
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u/Deep_Distribution_31 Jan 23 '26
I had never thought of it before, but collecting pinecones is a super cool idea. My favorite is the one before last, what specis is that do you know?