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.
Knobcone Pine is not likely to confused with any other species of pine within its range. Bark gray and smooth in younger trees, becoming dark gray and broken by fissures into large, scaly ridges. 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. 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.