An Engineering Marvel - Pinecones

Pine cones - the coveted natural treasure that gets stuffed into back packs by kids and adults alike! Sometimes as curios and toys, sometimes as decor items, and sometimes as christmas ornaments!

They were a complete novelty for the Mumbaikar in me and I have lost count of how many I have stuffed into my bag over the years I picked up some in Melbourne and then some in Hong Kong. As with everything in Melbourne that is much larger than in Hong Kong - be it the size of houses, public gardens, supermarkets and so on, the pine cones from Melbourne are much larger than those from Hong Kong Okay, okay - I do understand that there are different species of pines 🙃

I washed the pine cones thoroughly since they came from outside just the way I wash apples and potatoes. To my utter disbelief they just closed! I was aghast! But they opened as they dried... I got a litte bold and I washed them again. And they closed! Wow!

Google was summoned for an explanation. The pine cones were just doing their job well. The scales on the dead cones are meant to protect the seeds that are inside. Yeah... there are seeds hidden inside the thorny scales and they come with an attached wing that helps them fly to far away places in dry climates and start a new tree there! They need to be protected from water because they don't do well in humid surroundings.

The top right photo has the winged seeds. One seems quite big and mature. It will get potted at the earliest. I hope to have a pine tree in our small balcony soon! 😁

The photo on the bottom left shows a seed securely hidden inside the scales.

Once the "why" of the opening and closing was understood, came the "how". The tissues of the scales swell when wet and shrink when dry. Hmm... understood.

But still a question lingered - aren't they dead? How often do you see a dead thing responding so animatedly to changes in the surroundings and doing important things like protecting seeds? Nature's engineering marvel?