Knobcone Pine

(Pinus attenuata)

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences

Knobcone Pine (Pinus attenuata)

Identifying Characters: The cones of Knobcone Pine are highly distinctive; oblique and bent at the apex, and occur in whorls on the branches. Cones are very persistent and do not open until touched by fire. Some cones are so persistent they are overgrown by the wood of the tree.

Similar Species: Knobcone Pine is not likely to confused with any other species of pine within its range.

Measurements: Height of mature trees 20 to30 feet, but some individuals reach as much as 100 feet; diameter 1 foot.

Cones: Cones, without a stalk, elongate and pointed at the apex; cone oblique with cone scales better developed on the outer side than the inner side; cones borne on whorls on the branch, highly persistent, and not opening until touched by fire; cone scales with a keel and ending in a short, stout spine.

Needles: Needles in bundles of 3, 3 to 7 inches long, but averaging 4 to 5 inches long; color pale yellow and needles stiff.

Bark: Bark gray and smooth in younger trees, becoming dark gray and broken by fissures into large, scaly ridges.

Native Range: Dry mountain slopes from the valley of the Mackenzie River in Oregon over the mountains of southwestern Oregon where it is most abundant and grows to its largest size, often forming pure forests ovr large areas, and southward along the the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains. In California it occurs on the northern cross ranges, the coast ranges from Trinity to Sonoma Counties, the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada to Mariposa County, and over the southern coast ranges from Santa Cruz to the dry, arid southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Habitat: Knobcone Pine forms nearly pure stands on dry, rocky, or other poor montane soils from 1000 feet to as much as 4000 feet in the south.