Look up the next time you pass a pine tree in the tri-state region because the chances are it's loaded with cones.

Conditions this season are ripe for an abundance of these woody reproductive organs of pine trees, and they'll soon fall to the ground in both urban and forested areas.

Forestry specialist with Purdue University's Forestry and Natural Resources Department say some of the abundance could be the natural two-year, cone-producing cycle of conifers.

One year there's few, if any, cones, while the following year the trees go into a seed-producing frenzy.

But more pine cones can also mean the trees are producing more reproductive seeds as a way to deal with the stress of a dry or changing climate.