Grasslike leaves surround a flowering stalk with a cluster of white or pink flowers. You can often see the remains of a squirrel's feast, where he sat on an exposed rock and systematically stripped the scales off a pine cone as if he were eating a corn cob. The Pine cob remains in the scale litter, all the pine nuts gone. Pine nuts are good raw or toasted. Tender green needles may be chopped fine and steeped to make tea.
Leaves form a basal rosette from which a flowering stalk arises, bearing many tiny seeds.
Young leaves may be eaten fresh or boiled 10 minutes. Medicinal tea can be made from dried or chopped fresh leaves. The seed is the source of psyllium, used to decrease cholesterol. Lacy-leaved Queen Anne's Lace has a hairy stem. Fool's Parsley is smooth-stemmed.