I found this on the ground in Parque Carolina (Quito's Central Park). Trees in the vicinity included some Pines of unknown species, a couple of Casuarina (and I'm sure it's not from a Casuarina), a rather tall Cypress, and three or four Parana Pines (A. angustifolia). The cone is about the size of a baseball, weighs about a pound, and smells faintly of pine. Is this a young Araucaria angustifola cone? Do I have any hope of getting viable seed out of it? If so, how do I go about that? Opinions? Thanks in advance!
If the seed cone is juvenile, and it appears to be... it may not have viable seeds.... sorry Lorax... if you let it dry out in the sun, maybe their is enough energy left in the cone for it to mature set the odd seed? Just a thought...
I've got no idea. I've also got a morbid fear of having a mature cone drop on me from above. All of the A. angustifolia in that park are about 40 feet tall.
Pinus species, possibly Pinus oocarpa or P. radiata. The cone didn't drop off, it was torn off by someone (and needed a fair degree of force to do so!). Can you find the tree it is from, and get a close-up of the foliage? Best of all, of a branch with the cones in situ; also count the number of needles per fascicle (not always easy to see in a photo!).
I bet it came from the tree that went down in the last lightning storm, then. I can get pics next time I'm in the park. From googling the two species you gave me, I'd say P. radiata.
I don't know.... I am not normally out and about when it's stormy here - it's like an invitation to get killed. We had a thunderstorm yesterday that clocked 40 bolts of lightning in a single minute during the 15-minute heart of the thing, and it dropped hail the size of squash balls over about half the city. The last really big storm we had, about 3 months ago, blacked out the ENTIRE COUNTRY for half a day. Thus, I'm statistically far more likely to be conked by a cone from one of the city's more than 300 A. angustifolia trees while strolling in the sunshine. Or a branch, for that matter. Parana pines seem to drop those with alarming ease and frequency.
here is a video of harvesting of Araucaria Angustifolia pines... and then extracting the seeds, which are BIG in Araucaria Angustifolia... and ultra tasty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6D4FuDeDug and separating the pine seeds from the big pine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_OSwkUQoOA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWcByjXlBAI
