It’s a story about a tree doing what a tree does, but Warragul’s bunya pine has gained global media coverage for its potentially lethal pine cones.
Number one in the wide world of nuts: One of the pine cones from the Warragul bunya pine. Image credit: Baw Baw Shire Council
ADVERTISEMENT
The New York Post has included the story high in its “Weird but true” section today (read), and MSN News UK has used the story as another chance to paint Australia as a continent-wide death trap (read).
The pine cones were removed by the council, meaning the only real danger the journalists at MSN UK should be warning of is people being hit by cars on Smith Street as they try to spot one of the now-famous nuts.
It(')s nuts! The offending tree on Smith Street. Image credit: Author.
ADVERTISEMENT
The tree stands in the Courthouse Restaurant garden and one hopes the cones, which are edible, might soon appear on the menu there.
The cones are impressive, but don’t forget coconuts have been knocking people down since before it was cool.
UPDATE (5 February 2012, 3.10 AM): Popular science and sci-fi website io9 has gone nuts for our nuts, featuring the story in their biology section (read).
