diff --git a/docs/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/serialization.rst b/docs/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/serialization.rst
index d5da24d..7ff4ce3 100644
--- a/docs/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/serialization.rst
+++ b/docs/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/serialization.rst
@@ -71,6 +71,14 @@
 all begin with ``-----BEGIN {format}-----`` and end with ``-----END
 {format}-----``.
 
+.. note::
+
+    A PEM block which starts with ``-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----`` is not a
+    public or private key, it's an :doc:`X.509 Certificate </x509>`. You can
+    load it using :func:`~cryptography.x509.load_pem_x509_certificate` and
+    extract the public key with
+    :meth:`Certificate.public_key <cryptography.x509.Certificate.public_key>`.
+
 .. function:: load_pem_private_key(data, password, backend)
 
     .. versionadded:: 0.6