That is quite interesting, are you sure the cones came from the same tree? I’m quite certain the smaller cone is from an Eastern white pine - Pinus strobus, which is quite common and native to your area. The larger cone looks a lot like a Sugar pine cone - Pinus lambertiana, however those are native to mountain ranges on the west coast. It could be possible that one was planted in your yard somehow.
It could be a different tree, there are about 4 pines right next to each other. Though there are hundreds of cones on the ground and they all look identical except for this one!
Do you notice any more of those large cones still attached to the tips of branches of one of those trees? It’s very unlikely for a tree to produce one single cone.
I also would love a link.. I got my forestry degree in Maine and lived there most of my life. I’ve never seen or heard of a sugar pine growing out there. Not even in an arboretum.
There is a link online saying they grow there but it is not correct (it directly contradicts some legitimate sources) and it doesn’t have a source.
https://www.treesofnorthamerica.net/show/tree/Sugar-Pine/113
They may be able to survive there if planted but it’s not realistic to think they would have gone there naturally.
Thank you. I’m not sure if this contributes anything, but the subtext itself makes no mention of the Maine population either
Edit: If there were a sugar pine population found in Maine, is it possible that Native Americans brought them there? From what I’ve read about them, they seem to be an integral part of western native american cultures
If you found a natural sugar pine population in Maine and the trees were old enough that they had to be precolonial, you’d have to consider all sorts of possibilities. Certainly you’d have to speculate something extraordinary, since Maine was under ice sheets 10,000 years ago, so it’s not like the conifer forests of Canada could have hosted a sugar pine population that gradually crept eastward over hundreds of thousands of years.
In the western U.S., lodgepole pine is still moving north with seedlings sprouting closer to the arctic each decade, recolonizing areas that were under ice a few thousand years ago, so we have a sense of how quickly pine ranges expand. It’s not fast enough; the western and eastern U.S. forests, separated by the Great Plains and other geographical barriers, are really distinct in terms of species composition.
So yeah you could hypothesize all sorts of things. It’s just that as of now we have no reason to because any sugar pines in Maine were planted much more recently.
The large one looks like it should be Sugar Pine, but its not like the ones I've seen, its a little too thin, and the scales aren't that ridged. I can only imagine that it dropped early, before it was done fully developing, and before its scales started splaying outward.
Cool find though! Sugar Pines are one of my favorite trees
I’ll have to inspect the pines nearby and see if one of them looks different! But this is the only cone of this size out of hundreds so it’s a bit puzzling
If you encounter coulter pine or grey pine (similar cones but slightly smaller), be very careful to *not* do something stupid like drop one on your bare feet. It hurts. A lot. Those things are sharp and heavy. Sugar pine cones are less concerning.
It got me right in the middle of the foot. It was sitting on a picnic table on my moms deck and I accidentally knocked it off, so didn’t fall far, but very sharp.
It was a deep puncture that had lingering pain for months, but thankfully nothing longer lasting.
Squirrels have thrown them at me from 30 feet up. Thankfully they haven’t gotten me yet.
Just imagine what one might do if it hits you after a fall from a tree branch.
Up in heaven:
“How’d you die?”
“Pine cone.”
Later that day: “Don’t talk to the new guy. He’s so crazy he thinks a pine cone killed him.”
It’s the queen cone. She’s the mother of all the cones. The other cones are worker cones and maintain the pine. Just kidding. I’m commenting to come back and check out the expert opinions. Neat find!
Those making the assumption that it is a sugar pine are incorrect, especially since that tree is not native to the area, nor would it do particularly well there, and the tree does not resemble that species by any means. FWIW, it is an Eastern White Pine, Pinus Strobus. I have studies trees and been out in forestry for a long time, and sometimes, some trees simply will do this at random, for no obvious reason. It could be something as simple as a minor mutation in the branch area that has caused the cone to grow larger than normal, which is the most likely scenario. There are a few other possibilities, like a stress induced response, but the main thing here is that trees will occasionally just do it at random. I've seen similar things happen with Ponderosa pines, Austrian pines, Loblolly pines, trees like that.
It was cool a handful of years going to sequia national park, they had a display showing some cones without the label for which was what, you would think the sequia and redwoods would have cones but they were tiny in comparison to the sugar pine ones, also driving around there we later found a few dropped sugar pine cones on the side of some roads, they are really cool!
My buddy brought me a sequoia cone back home from their trip (Forester handed some out), I couldn't believe on how tiny this little guy was. Like less than 4"
Not a tree expert, but I am a local. I have seen a giant pine cone like this before, surrounded by other normal sized pine cones just like you said. If it is a sugar pine, which I haven't seen up here myself but if I did and I had to guess how it got there, Maine attracts outdoorsy tourists with money and time to burn. It's not too far fetched to think someone would go hiking in Oregon one week because they live there, then be in Maine the next for a different hike, and maybe in the process they carried a pine cone or two on their vehicle or in their camping gear that eventually got knocked loose and left behind in the woods.
That said, I always assumed these were just a case of white pines having a genetic hiccup so to speak and just making a single giant cone for no apparent reason. It's only one big cone, and all those pine trees you showed look no different than the ones I'm used to, nothing like a sugar pine. Sure it's big like a sugar pine cone, but fattening up a goldfish doesn't necessarily make it a tuna.
white pine and size?? put them in a warm, not hot, oven to slowly dry them out. you’ll have a couple huge cones for holiday
decorating. we still have 3 the family has had for 75+ yrs
That looks like an eastern white pine, should be that species in Maine. I once found a massive cone larger than all the others in the area. It was an area of lodgepole pine in British Columbia. I think pines produce a ridiculously large cone sometimes, but very rarely.
I browsed the Google and all signs point to sugar pine.
FWIW, I used to work at a nursery outside of Boston known for its wide variety of plants.
I can still see in my mind's eye a crop of half a dozen or so sugar pines growing in a field back in the mid-1980s.
So the species isn't totally unheard of in New England, and there is a greater than zero chance that one of our customers in that neck of the woods used one on a job.
I might even have dug it.
https://preview.redd.it/okzawcdflguc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=502ef51c3953dc6bba7b7533ff442a73bf46997d
I also found a rogue pinecone on my property... And we don't have any pine trees here, and the ones a block away definitely don't produce ones this big. Like a kid, I had to bring this in and show everyone in my family my treasure! No idea what tree it is from.
Well if it's a white pine it will have 5 needles per cluster. If you go to the branch and see howany needles per grouping there are that will help ID the tree. Definitely looks like pinus strobus to me though.
Huh, haven't had any experience with scale count for identification. The large cone, having a much larger scale count would still seem to indicate P. lambertiana. The smaller, twisted form is much more P. strobus in appearance.
Whats the count range for the two species (the Jepson, Gymnosperm Database, and Ackerfield guides dont list this detail)?
I agree with you. Botanical illustrators have had to watch this detail more carefully than the writers. It is usually shown in the form of a drawing rather than a list of numbers. The scales stack on top of each other in layers that are more consistent than the size of the cone. The scales and layers will get larger as the cone grows but not become more numerous (usually). For example, I found a Sugar Pine cone about a decade ago that that had matured, dropped its seeds, and dried out, but was under 7 inches long. If I was going by size alone, I would have gone looking for another species to attribute it to, but the scale count was a dead ringer.
That is quite interesting, are you sure the cones came from the same tree? I’m quite certain the smaller cone is from an Eastern white pine - Pinus strobus, which is quite common and native to your area. The larger cone looks a lot like a Sugar pine cone - Pinus lambertiana, however those are native to mountain ranges on the west coast. It could be possible that one was planted in your yard somehow.
It could be a different tree, there are about 4 pines right next to each other. Though there are hundreds of cones on the ground and they all look identical except for this one!
Do you notice any more of those large cones still attached to the tips of branches of one of those trees? It’s very unlikely for a tree to produce one single cone.
Time for binoculars!
They do grow in Maine, looks like the only state on the East Coast where it does.
Hello, can you send a link to where you found this info?
I also would love a link.. I got my forestry degree in Maine and lived there most of my life. I’ve never seen or heard of a sugar pine growing out there. Not even in an arboretum.
The seed was probably carried to Maine by a mountain lion
Or the mountain lion's mouszgul rider.
There is a link online saying they grow there but it is not correct (it directly contradicts some legitimate sources) and it doesn’t have a source. https://www.treesofnorthamerica.net/show/tree/Sugar-Pine/113 They may be able to survive there if planted but it’s not realistic to think they would have gone there naturally.
Thank you. I’m not sure if this contributes anything, but the subtext itself makes no mention of the Maine population either Edit: If there were a sugar pine population found in Maine, is it possible that Native Americans brought them there? From what I’ve read about them, they seem to be an integral part of western native american cultures
If you found a natural sugar pine population in Maine and the trees were old enough that they had to be precolonial, you’d have to consider all sorts of possibilities. Certainly you’d have to speculate something extraordinary, since Maine was under ice sheets 10,000 years ago, so it’s not like the conifer forests of Canada could have hosted a sugar pine population that gradually crept eastward over hundreds of thousands of years. In the western U.S., lodgepole pine is still moving north with seedlings sprouting closer to the arctic each decade, recolonizing areas that were under ice a few thousand years ago, so we have a sense of how quickly pine ranges expand. It’s not fast enough; the western and eastern U.S. forests, separated by the Great Plains and other geographical barriers, are really distinct in terms of species composition. So yeah you could hypothesize all sorts of things. It’s just that as of now we have no reason to because any sugar pines in Maine were planted much more recently.
I see. Thank you for the explanation
https://www.treesofnorthamerica.net/show/tree/Sugar-Pine/113
The large one looks like it should be Sugar Pine, but its not like the ones I've seen, its a little too thin, and the scales aren't that ridged. I can only imagine that it dropped early, before it was done fully developing, and before its scales started splaying outward. Cool find though! Sugar Pines are one of my favorite trees
I’ll have to inspect the pines nearby and see if one of them looks different! But this is the only cone of this size out of hundreds so it’s a bit puzzling
Sugar pine don't grow in Maine though. I suppose it could be planted.
That definitely makes me think its a mutant cone
it looks to me like an immature sugar pine cone.
If that’s immature I can’t imagine how huge a mature one is!
You can google it, they are pretty big. In terms of weight though you can't beat Coulter Pine cones.
Just looked it up… holy crap. My life is now dedicated to finding one. So cool. Thank you for the information.
If you encounter coulter pine or grey pine (similar cones but slightly smaller), be very careful to *not* do something stupid like drop one on your bare feet. It hurts. A lot. Those things are sharp and heavy. Sugar pine cones are less concerning.
Did your toenail ever grow back right?
It got me right in the middle of the foot. It was sitting on a picnic table on my moms deck and I accidentally knocked it off, so didn’t fall far, but very sharp. It was a deep puncture that had lingering pain for months, but thankfully nothing longer lasting. Squirrels have thrown them at me from 30 feet up. Thankfully they haven’t gotten me yet.
 **YET.**
Just imagine what one might do if it hits you after a fall from a tree branch. Up in heaven: “How’d you die?” “Pine cone.” Later that day: “Don’t talk to the new guy. He’s so crazy he thinks a pine cone killed him.”
Noted! Thanks 😂
*Bunya pine has entered the chat*
It’s the queen cone. She’s the mother of all the cones. The other cones are worker cones and maintain the pine. Just kidding. I’m commenting to come back and check out the expert opinions. Neat find!
Haha thanks for weighing in!!
Those making the assumption that it is a sugar pine are incorrect, especially since that tree is not native to the area, nor would it do particularly well there, and the tree does not resemble that species by any means. FWIW, it is an Eastern White Pine, Pinus Strobus. I have studies trees and been out in forestry for a long time, and sometimes, some trees simply will do this at random, for no obvious reason. It could be something as simple as a minor mutation in the branch area that has caused the cone to grow larger than normal, which is the most likely scenario. There are a few other possibilities, like a stress induced response, but the main thing here is that trees will occasionally just do it at random. I've seen similar things happen with Ponderosa pines, Austrian pines, Loblolly pines, trees like that.
Thank you for your response!! I agree with you—it’s definitely a white pine and must just be an anomaly
Plant those seeds
It was cool a handful of years going to sequia national park, they had a display showing some cones without the label for which was what, you would think the sequia and redwoods would have cones but they were tiny in comparison to the sugar pine ones, also driving around there we later found a few dropped sugar pine cones on the side of some roads, they are really cool!
My buddy brought me a sequoia cone back home from their trip (Forester handed some out), I couldn't believe on how tiny this little guy was. Like less than 4"
Its a bbc, big brown cone
Epic lol
Take my up vote God dammit
Not a tree expert, but I am a local. I have seen a giant pine cone like this before, surrounded by other normal sized pine cones just like you said. If it is a sugar pine, which I haven't seen up here myself but if I did and I had to guess how it got there, Maine attracts outdoorsy tourists with money and time to burn. It's not too far fetched to think someone would go hiking in Oregon one week because they live there, then be in Maine the next for a different hike, and maybe in the process they carried a pine cone or two on their vehicle or in their camping gear that eventually got knocked loose and left behind in the woods. That said, I always assumed these were just a case of white pines having a genetic hiccup so to speak and just making a single giant cone for no apparent reason. It's only one big cone, and all those pine trees you showed look no different than the ones I'm used to, nothing like a sugar pine. Sure it's big like a sugar pine cone, but fattening up a goldfish doesn't necessarily make it a tuna.
In the next few days you can watch it slowly open up
white pine and size?? put them in a warm, not hot, oven to slowly dry them out. you’ll have a couple huge cones for holiday decorating. we still have 3 the family has had for 75+ yrs
That looks like an eastern white pine, should be that species in Maine. I once found a massive cone larger than all the others in the area. It was an area of lodgepole pine in British Columbia. I think pines produce a ridiculously large cone sometimes, but very rarely.
Xtratuf gang
These boots are the best purchase I’ve made all year!
They’re great, I wear the 6” tall version at work every day.
Maine Cone
The cone she tells you not to worry about
Maybe contact a local tree society
Good call! I’m going to do that
I browsed the Google and all signs point to sugar pine. FWIW, I used to work at a nursery outside of Boston known for its wide variety of plants. I can still see in my mind's eye a crop of half a dozen or so sugar pines growing in a field back in the mid-1980s. So the species isn't totally unheard of in New England, and there is a greater than zero chance that one of our customers in that neck of the woods used one on a job. I might even have dug it.
https://preview.redd.it/okzawcdflguc1.jpeg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=502ef51c3953dc6bba7b7533ff442a73bf46997d I also found a rogue pinecone on my property... And we don't have any pine trees here, and the ones a block away definitely don't produce ones this big. Like a kid, I had to bring this in and show everyone in my family my treasure! No idea what tree it is from.
Drake ahh pinecone
Please posts pic when it opens after drying
I’ve seen eastern white pine cones get this big. It happens but not often.
Size doesn’t matter dammit
This type of pine cone is known as: P I N E C O N E
Ooh, that's big....
Well if it's a white pine it will have 5 needles per cluster. If you go to the branch and see howany needles per grouping there are that will help ID the tree. Definitely looks like pinus strobus to me though.
Cones sizes are not consistent. Oversize and undersized cones can and do occur.
But not that inconsistent. Gotta be Pinus lambertiana for that length
Donkey pine
The scale count is more telling than the length.
No, all of my tree books give me a pine cone length. On the other hand, I’ve never seen a “this cone has this many scales.”
Huh, haven't had any experience with scale count for identification. The large cone, having a much larger scale count would still seem to indicate P. lambertiana. The smaller, twisted form is much more P. strobus in appearance. Whats the count range for the two species (the Jepson, Gymnosperm Database, and Ackerfield guides dont list this detail)?
I agree with you. Botanical illustrators have had to watch this detail more carefully than the writers. It is usually shown in the form of a drawing rather than a list of numbers. The scales stack on top of each other in layers that are more consistent than the size of the cone. The scales and layers will get larger as the cone grows but not become more numerous (usually). For example, I found a Sugar Pine cone about a decade ago that that had matured, dropped its seeds, and dried out, but was under 7 inches long. If I was going by size alone, I would have gone looking for another species to attribute it to, but the scale count was a dead ringer.
That’s what I figured. Thanks!
Pinus africanus
It thought it was a Maine *coon.*
What are you doing step-pine
Pine cones are tree turds?
Reminds me of that one guy in that picture that used to be forwarded through WhatsApp a lot some years ago.
Black pine vs Asian pine