Pine Flowers

I was surprised because the tree looked like a red pine. I grew up with red pines, have been around them all my life, and I didn't remember ever having seen such "flowers" on them before. They look like tiny pine cones, but they're soft and colourful - I guess they are the beginnings of pine cones.



I was about to pull out of a parking lot in a conservation area when my eye was caught by a pine tree with what looked like red flowers on it. The sunbeams just happened to be lighting on them at that moment, or I probably wouldn't have noticed them.

So of course I checked in my tree book when I got home. It says that it is called a Slash Pine. Its range is "Coastal Plain from S. South Carolina to S. Florida, and west to SE. Louisiana..."

I wondered how it had gotten way up here until I read that "Slash Pine is extensively grown in forest plantations both in its natural range and farther north. Its beauty makes it popular as a shade and ornamental tree."
- National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees, Eastern Region

I assume that someone at the conservation authority planted it there. Though when I think about it, if a tree like this can grow somewhere so far away from its original habitat, could it have spread here naturally?