This past weekend’s nor’easter brought heavy rain and hurricane force winds to Cape Cod, knocking down numerous trees. While downed trees can cause immense damage and disruption if they fall on houses, on power lines or into roads, they can also provide a rarely seen look into the tops of trees. During a walk through the forest on Saturday afternoon after the worst of the storm had passed, I encountered dozens of toppled trees, including this pitch pine (Pinus rigida).

As one of the most common trees in the area, many people are familiar with pitch pine’s roundish, somewhat spiky cones, approximately 2 to 3 inches in length, which drop in large numbers in the fall. But rarely do we get a glimpse at the immature cones as they are developing. Pitch pines are monoecious (both male and female cones are produced on the same plant). The male cones, which produce copious amounts of pollen in the spring, are often abundant on low branches, but female cones, which will ultimately produce seeds, are more common on upper branches. The immature female cones pictured here are approximately a half inch across, and are clustered at the ends of what had been the top branches of this particular tree before it fell.

Mature female (seed) cone, typically seen fallen to the ground in the fall and winter.

Small (~1/2 inch) immature female cone on upper branches of a pitch pine.

For comparison, here are fertile male pitch pine cones (photo taken May 2017), which develop on lower branches.

These pictures also allow closer examination of the needles, which grow in bundles of three on pitch pines. In addition to cone shape and size, needles are a helpful identification characteristic, as another common pine species, the white pine (Pinus strobus), has needles in bundles of five.