Surrounded by trees extending almost three hundred feet straight up, I had an understandable urge to look skyward as we wandered through the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. Fortunately, a young boy showed me what was lying right at my feet: giant sequoia cones!
Winter winds blow pollen from the sequoias’ lower branches up to the female cones congregating the trees’ crowns. Naturally occurring lightening fires eventually dry out the mature cones, releasing as many as two hundred seeds per cone and allowing the life cycle to roll around another time.
The trees themselves disappear to almost unfathomable heights from the ground below. The child to cone size comparison provided a more tangible illustration of “gigantic”.
Updated from February 15, 2010
Wow. Those are truly gigantic, I never knew they could grow so large but when you break down the details, it makes sense.
Wow! I didn’t know cones could get that big. I’d hate to be standing under one of those trees when it’s dropping cones!
Really nice blog. The photos were great. All the best.
Huge cones. I like the stories of how fire enables life to continue. Some of Australia’s trees are the same – fire being an important part of the cycle of a tree’s life.
That’s really a huge cone! I never have seen one like that.
Susanne
Fly Girl: They looked big on the ground, and utterly massive in the hands of a child.
Trisha: No kidding! Hadn’t thought of that. A cone that size falling from that height? Ow.
Thanks Charles!
Mark H: It’s important enough that the National Park Service does controlled burns in the absence of naturally occurring forest fires.
Susanne: I hadn’t either. Had to get a photo, of course!