The photo below shows a coast redwood cone on a stump near Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Sometimes there are plenty of cones under single coast redwoods. But if you pay close attention, sometimes few if any redwood cones can be found along a trail’s full length.

Cone growth and numbers vary from year to year depending on changing conditions, but generally coast redwoods produce far less cones than Douglas fir, western hemlock or Sitka spruce.

The cone I would expect most people to confuse with coast redwood’s is the cone of the western hemlock. That too is a very small cone, usually less than an inch.  But the redwood cone looks a little bit different. It’s firmer and could almost be described as “woody” feeling.

The less abundant cone production of coast redwoods must be related to how frequent (or infrequent) seeds will germinate. And my estimation is that intermittent forest fires over the centuries are related to this by clearing areas that provide good seed beds for root establishment.

Coast Redwood Cone

Coast Redwood Cone Closeup