Which correctly distinguishes between a pine tree and an apple tree? the pine tree bears flowers; the apple tree does not have any flowers. the pine tree has unprotected seeds; the apple tree has seeds in fruit. the pine tree is vascular; the apple tree is a seedless, nonvascular plant. the pine tree thrives in warm climates; the apple tree thrives in cold climates.

Hi!

Let's review each choice.

The pine tree bears flowers; the apple tree does not have any flowers. That is false, as apple trees have apple blossoms, since they need to be pollinated.

The pine tree has unprotected seeds; the apple tree has seeds in fruit. This one is correct; even though the pine tree has cones, it is a gymnosperm, and its seeds are regarded as unprotected. The seeds of an apple tree are protected however, as they are fully enclosed by a fruit.

The pine tree is vascular, the apple tree is a seedless, nonvascular plant. That is false. A pine tree is vascular, however an apple tree has seeds, and is vascular. There is no way for a tall tree to be able to directly access water at the top (unlike mosses and horsetails), there needs to be some form of transportation. And, as we've seen before, apple trees have seeds.

The pine tree thrives in warm climates, the apple tree thrives in cold. That's false: the difference between a deciduous and coniferous trees is that deciduous trees (which lose their leaves every winter) are much less suited to cold weather compared to coniferous trees (which don't lose their needlelike leaves every winter). Since the apple tree is deciduous, and the pine tree is coniferous, it's actually the other way around.

Hope this helped!

The answer is nucleic acid