Pine cones are everywhere this time of year. We see them on wreaths, in baskets, door-swags, and of course on trees and the ground. Aside from their decorating uses, pinecones play an important role ...

MY YARD IS FULL of eastern white pine trees, and every three years or so, it is full of pine cones. This is one of those years. Pine cones have fallen all over the yard, the sidewalk, the driveway.

Steve Nix is a member of the Society of American Foresters and a former forest resources analyst for the state of Alabama. In the biology of pine trees, the cone is actually not the seed at all, but a ...