Posted by Carter Willis-Blair on March 10, 2004

Q: How do a few trees multiply into a whole forest? About how many pinecones does a tree produce each year? About how many will be properly fertilized and grow into a seedling?

A: > Question: How do a few trees multiply into a whole forest?

This takes time, lots of time. As seeds are carried or blown into an area, some germinate (sprout) and grow into trees. If one starts with an open field and doesn't mow or make any changes, it will take years and years before you'll see a forest. However, it doesn't take long before you will begin to see a small tree here and another over there. Slowly, but surely, in areas where forests normally grow (not deserts, for example), enough trees will once again grow to form a forest.

About how many pinecones does a tree produce each year? I can't give you an answer because it varies from year to year. In some years, the pine cone crop may be especially heavy and in another year, very few are produced - they go in cycles. Apple growers are well aware of this and know that their trees won't produce as abundantly each and every year.

About how many will be properly fertilized and grow into a seedling? Pine cones house or hold the seeds so there may be hundreds of seeds in a single cone. Each seed must fall to the ground where conditions need to be just right for it to germinate. Then there must be the right amount of light, not too much competition from other pine seedlings, enough moisture, and no animals that might eat them. Then too, there shouldn't be any natural disasters like fire or flood either. In the end very, very few of the seeds ever grow at all and very few of these ever grow to adulthood. Of course, if you think about it, if all or even most of the seeds each tree produced grew into another tree, we wouldn't have any place to walk. Those that survive to grow and reproduce are usually the best suited for a given place and pass their own genetic material on to their own offspring.

John Wiessinger ( March 10, 2004)