Red Pine Candle
of Love Alight
In botany, a newly forming red pine branchlet is called a candle. A red pine in springtime is covered with male and female candles, something that might really fan the flames of the imagination!
Female strobili (cones) have flowers on the tips of their candles as in this painting which open when ready, waiting to catch the wind-borne pollen from male strobili formed at the base of that year’s candles.
How do the male strobili know when to release? Most likely, hormones are felt surging within the tree and also exuded into the air, sensed by all interested parties. Spicy! Wonderful! Joyous! So, the males release their pollen into the wind to disperse onto all the waiting female strobili in the area in an explosion of pollen fireworks, love, and red pine heaven on earth.
It is through this unseen, underlying and ever-present source of attraction that all energy seems to flow, from the smallest molecular particles reaching out to each other, affecting all earth’s forms big and small and to which we, in our turn, are connected. Everything is energy!