What is it Wednesday: April 21, 2021

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

April 21, 2021. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

 

 

This is a fresh young cone of a Norway spruce tree. 

This cone is a female cone. The female cones on Norway spruces are attached at the tips of upper branches. The male cones, which are smaller, are scattered throughout the lower branches. 

Both start out bright purple-pink and shift to green as they mature, though the male cones may look more yellow because they are full of pollen. Once the male cones release pollen, they dry up and fall to the ground. The fertilized female cones eventually droop on the branch, and become dry, brown, and hard, with seeds tucked underneath each scale. (See this previous What is it Wednesday post for more information on spruce seeds and cones.) 

The position of male cones on lower branches and female cones on upper branches prevents self-fertilization. With male cones down low and female cones up high, pollen from male cones must get blown by the wind to get high enough to reach a female cone. This wind will usually carry the pollen to another tree.  If, however, the cones were intermixed or the males were on top, the pollen would fall directly into its own female cones. Pollenating a nearby tree instead ensures more genetic diversity and a healthier tree population.

There seems to be a huge number of cones on this particular spruce tree this year! (This picture was taken shortly after the male cones developed and before the female cones appeared, about a week before this week's picture.) A little searching online told me that spruces are one type of tree that follows a "mast year" pattern of reproduction. Some years they produce WAY more seeds (in cones, in the case of spruces) than in other years. This is sometimes related to growing conditions, but can also be random and unrelated to conditions. This way, every so often, the tree produces far more seeds than the animals in its environment can eat, ensuring that periodically there will be plenty of seeds left behind to germinate and reproduce. If they always produced more seeds, the animal populations would gradually increase to match the amount of food resources in their habitat. With random mast years, the animal populations don't adapt to the higher amount of seeds. 

The information about spruces and mast years also pointed out that many stands of spruces are dominated by "super-producer" individuals - trees that produce far more cones than the other trees around them. This spruce tree in our picture seems to be a super-producer for its location. 

for more information:

 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112718320139

Trees have so many tricks to help them survive and thrive, AND they look stunning while doing so! Be sure to get out and take a close look at the ways the trees around you are surviving and thriving! 

 Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!