The 10 kg Pinecone!

Australia...The land where everything tries to kill you.. Apparently, even pinecones 😂

So, today I first heard about Araucaria bidwillii, a large evergreen coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae which is endemic to Australia.

Commonly known as bunya pine or bunya-bunya, they grow to be quite big. Up to 50 meters (164 feet) tall with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 meters (5 feet).

But what is really interesting about them are their cones. They are just fucking huge. Up to 35 centimeters (14 inches) wide and up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) heavy, posing a serious threat to anyone spending time down these trees.

Just imagine this bad boy falling on your head, lol

source

Or this one

source

Ouch!

By the way, here's how the actual tree looks like

source

And here's a video:

Interestingly, I couldn't find any reported deaths. However I did find this case where a man's skull was seriously fractured but he did survive with permanent disabilities. Funnily, he was in San Francisco in a botanical garden and not Australia lol.

Court papers also say he's been left with "severe and likely irreversible cognitive defects" after the surgery to relieve swelling caused by internal bleeding on his brain.

And this couple that narrowly escaped with some bruises.

A Porirua couple have escaped serious injuries after they were hit by a pumpkin-sized cone that fell from a heritage tree in Nelson's Queen's Gardens. Dreen and David Bradley were left shocked, bruised and requiring hospital treatment when the large cone from the bunya pine tree fell on them about 12.15pm on Sunday.

Cases of damaged parked vehicles have also been reported.

Anyways, fun stuff :D

Oh and by the way. Despite the common name, the species isn't actually a pine. It belongs to the genus Araucaria, which is part of the separate family Araucariaceae. True pines belong to the genus Pinus, within the family Pinaceae.

Here's a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to read more on them!

Ok I'll leave you know, hope you learnt something fun and new 😂

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Yesterday's participants were:
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