Female (left) and male spruce cones at the Arnold Arboretum. It's a more common sight to see separate male and female cones like this. (Courtesy William "Ned" Friedman) Every spring the conifer trees ...

A team of spruce cone collectors from the White River National Forest has been taking advantage of a prime window to stock up on seeds. Sent to a massive nursery in Nebraska, these seeds are intended ...

The state's black spruce seed cupboard is bare. So the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is paying people $85 a bushel — up from $70 last year — for the cones to meet spring orders for ...

Residents and visitors who’d like to help grow Minnesota forests can start this winter by collecting black spruce cones and donating them to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources State Forest ...

Walking the white dog along the road near home, I spotted a Norway spruce cone. The white dog, whose name is Apache (for the place she was born), sniffed and turned away. She — the dog whose favorite ...