Noticed something interesting on my most recently acquired Japanese Black Pine.
Are these flowers?
Male or female?
Could anyone share their experiences in how to get a pine bear fruit, or cones, that is
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Buds are green or greenish yellow, but these are more like brown. There are tens and tens of buds (big old tree), and these two don't fit in. Maybe they are cones in the making? I understand it takes a few years to mature.
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Pines, or conifers in general, do not flower. They produce cones or maybe berries (such as on junipers and cypresses). I think those are buds in your pics.
Of course conifers flower. They need to reproduce and set seed, so they flower. The flowers are rudimentary and do not have pretty petals (As they are wind-pollinators). But they are flowers nevertheless.
The brown clumps do look like clusters of male flower buds. But I think to remember having seen these sprout branches in spring too.