While sitting in my yard this past week on a breezy, warm spring day, I was hearing a lot of objects falling to the ground, much like you would expect in a hail storm. My first assumption is usually an angry squirrel throwing things down at intruders, but the quantity would mean this would have to be a full squirrel army. It became more obvious what was falling when one hit me in the head – small cones from one of our Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) trees. As these unique conifers lose their needles during the winter, the number of cones in them is quite obvious in the spring. I just hadn’t noticed until hearing them fall in numbers around me.
With so many accumulating on the ground below around the tree, the idea of this photograph popped into my head. So I gathered some of the cones at the unique buttress roots of the tree to make a few images. It symbolizes the magnitude of this “spawning” activity taking place right now in my yard.
I’ve only seen this tree once, at a local oriental garden. They are pretty rare.
They are quite unique. I hope the wild population recovers in some way.
Wonderful ideal for the composition, Mark, and a very descriptive name for this post, “Mother Redwood.” 🙂
Thanks Earl.
Great idea. And I like how it has divided the frame into triangles too!
I liked that also, and I see other triangles in the cones
Yes, I hadn’t seen that but now that you mention it…..
Viewing this on my phone at first I thought those cones were beetles of some sort ?. Such an infestation! Glad it’s something more benign. I love the image now that I know what it is.
Haha. Yeah, I think beetles would be more of a problem, and difficult to wrangle together into such a localized spot. 🙂 Thanks Joe.