Knobcone pine is a somewhat rare, smaller pine that usually grows no higher than 80 feet (25 meters).
Needles:
Grow in
bundles of three. They are 3-6 inches long, stiff and twisted.
Cones:
You can
identify this pine by its unique clusters of knobby cones.
They
adhere to limbs in clusters, gripping the tree so tightly that
they sometimes become embedded as the tree grows around them. They
often remain
closed for years until the seeds are released after a fire.
Bark: The
bark is gray, thin, and
breaks into scales on large trees.
Where
it grows: In southwest
Oregon, it grows above 1000 feet in the mountains near the coast and
some
scattered locations in the southern
Cascades, mostly on dry, rocky slopes. It also grows in scattered
locations throughout much of
California.
Knobcone pine at Hoyt Arboretum
Names:
The
species
name, attenuata,
is Latin for
"tapered."
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