(Please see earlier post.)
Many of the developing burrs are knocked off by wind and rain before maturing. But with fair weather and good fortune, a few complete development
and are released
to the forest floor, or into the waiting jaws of squirrels. In this case, the tree produced about 15 burrs, from all of which only three nuts seem large enough to be viable. Collected before dropping from the opened case—a window of only a day or so—these are now being stratified in an un-natural refrigerator in hope of germination next spring.
(Please see what comes next.)