My formerly male monkey puzzle got a female cone this spring. Is that very common? Are they likely to be fertile? I have a much larger female monkey puzzle - tall and dense enough that if she ever developed a pollen cone I probably couldn't see it.
I have reported in the thread https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc....-monkey-puzzle-trees.40634/page-2#post-308737 two sightings of both male and female cones on the same tree. and Wikipedia said at the time: "The trees are mostly dioecious, with male and female cones found on separate trees, though occasional individuals are monoecious or change sex with time." I see that the last clause is not now included at Araucaria araucana - Wikipedia. There are some comments at the start of the thread at Monoecious monkey puzzle | UBC Botanical Garden Forums. The thread starter has used fertile seeds from one such tree.
My male tree is young and has only been producing cones for about 3 years. I have had a few volunteer trees come up. I haven't had much luck finding viable seeds because the squirrels are much better at it than I am and they get to them before I can. But at least they plant some seeds and forget them.
