Redwood Seed Collection Season Has Arrived!
The 10,000 Redwoods Team has been scanning the redwoods for ripe female cones since early summer, searching for trees that might drop the motherlode this year. The cones look like plump, bright green, bumpy olives, and their abundance varies unpredictably from year to year.
Ripe Redwoods Cones | Photo by Jocelyn Knight | Jocelyn Knight Photography
Coast redwoods are mast seeders, which means many trees produce large numbers of cones at the same time, while in some years, they produce almost none. Relatively little is known about what drives these mast-seeding events. They may be driven by resource availability or weather, or they may have co-evolved with seed eaters.
Botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer supports the theory that trees mast seed to keep their predators’ populations in check. During years when seeds are scarce, populations of squirrels and chipmunks remain relatively steady. During high-seed years, redwoods produce more seeds than these animals can eat, increasing the chances that some seeds will grow into saplings. By spreading out these abundant seed years, the trees and their seed-eating predators strike a balance that allows both to thrive.
For the 10,000 Redwoods Team, this means it’s difficult to predict which trees might produce cones in any given year. Finding them has required hiking all over Marin, squinting into binoculars, and scanning treetops in search of bite-sized cones hundreds of feet in the air.
One of many seed scouting missions led by Nursery Manager Kristen Hopper
Our goal is to propagate 5,000 Redwood seedlings – and we need your help to reach it! We’ve tried to find as many seeding trees as we can, but the more genetic diversity we get in our seedlings, the higher the odds are for their success. Also, redwood seeds have a notoriously low germination rate – around 10% of seeds will actually sprout, which means approximately 3-10 sprouted trees per cone (USDA). This means we need to collect a LOT of cones this year to work towards our goal of 5,000 propagated seedlings. Every cone counts!
We’ve already invited the community to join us in collecting these precious cones, and so far 12 community members have stepped up to support the effort. Thank you!
Interested in joining the search? Check out our cone collection guide below and help us grow the next generation of redwoods. Every cone gets us closer to our 5,000 seedling goal!
