Many people imagine that pine cones—or the individual scales within the pine cone—are the tree's seeds, and by planting the pine cone you can grow a new pine tree. That's not the way it works ...

I read your article about the pepper trees and how invasive they are. We have been having the same problem with the Australian pine trees on our little island. Of course, we have the pepper trees ...

You might wonder why pine trees' seeds need protecting and how the cone helps. Pine seeds are very small and attached to the end of wing-shaped membranes.