Hold the phone, Micheal - which cone? Or name the species for both cones? The one on the right is Coast Douglas Fir Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. menziesii The one on the left is Rocky Mountain Douglas Fir Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. glauca These are trees I used to speak for! I was missing them down here. And this is my 700th post! How very fitting.
Pseudotsuga macrocarpa for sure on the right. Perhaps a P. macrocarpa x P. japonica hybrid on the left.
Lorax & Joclyn are correct for the one on the right – Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. menziesii. Congrats! No-one has the one on the left yet . . .
Fine then; I'm eliminating P. japonica as I really can't figure out how you'd manage to get a cone from it short of going to Japan. P. lindleyana, perhaps? It's remarkably similar to P. menziesii subsp. glauca conewise. Otherwise, P. sinensis.
Nope - I've got cones of all of those, but it isn't any of them! (P. japonica - there's 3 or 4 specimens in gardens in Britain, and they regularly bear cones, but the cones are only 3-5cm long; P. sinensis cone I've been sent from a cult. tree in New Zealand, but is only about 6cm long) Douglas actually mentioned the right answer, but for the wrong cone! It is P. macrocarpa. I deliberately selected my smallest P. macrocarpa cone (wild origin, from Pine Mt., near Ojai, Ventura Co., CA), and my largest P. menziesii cone (cultivated, UK). The aim was to catch people out with that the two species do overlap in cone length*, and it looks like it worked ;-) * P. macrocarpa 10-18cm; P. menziesii subsp. menziesii 6-12cm. They don't overlap in seed size though, with P. macrocarpa always having markedly larger seeds; I'll post pics of the seeds tomorrow.
