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HUGE pine cone

My boss brought me in a very heavy "thing" yesterday from his mum's garden...



It is next to two large cookies and my 24 oz water bottle to give you an idea of its size. It weighs about 10 pounds- really! and it has sharp spikes. At first I thought it was a pineapple, then I realized that it was a kind of pine cone. But it really s VERY big for a pine cone. It turns out it comes from a monkey puzzle tree He said that they had to take down the tree because it had produced about 70 of these cones this year and was now like a lethal weapon. Imagine one dropping from a 70 foot tall tree! He said they had to check the roof every time one fell on it, and they had to stop anyone walking or working nearby. Amazing!

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Linda Ayers Tarvin said…
Fascinating! I have seen a couple of monkey puzzle trees but never their cones. There used to be one in the front yard of a house on Peak Avenue close to Wright Avenue. There was also one at Gilroy Gardens.
10:52 PM
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