Description

Rare and Unique Knobcone Slice Pendant!. Made from the Knobcone pine tree from California. Rare and hard to acquire even if you live near the trees. The color looks different in the pictures due to the light that is why I am taking close up pictures of the color. Comes with a Brown, black or teal leather 18" or 20" corded necklace or a sterling silver chain. Please let me know when you purchase the pendant which one you prefer. Knobcone and lodgepole pinecones react uniquely to prolonged heat exposure. Do not wear while tanning for over 1.5 hours without getting into some shade. Please don't leave them hanging from your car mirror as decorations. The result of extended heat exposure is a slow and steady expansion of the pinecone slice itself, resulting in a "expanded" appearance and will not be able to be worn..I included information on why this is very important. These pendants are sturdy and should last a lifetime of daily use with that in mind. Knobcone pines are different. Known as closed cone pines, knobcones require heat, usually from fire, in order to open up and release their seeds. This classic plant adaptation to fire is because the cones are effectively glued shut with resin, a phenomenon called serotiny. When the heat of fire melts the resin, the ¼-inch black seeds are released. Since knobcone pines tend to grow in fire-prone areas, they have evolved this adaptation over millennia, allowing the species to persist even if all the mature trees perish in a fire. Areas where knobcone pines were burned are soon covered in a blanket of seedlings. After a fire the seeds are released en masse, thriving because there is reduced competition from other plants. It is interesting to note that in the absence of fire, knobcone cones can eventually open after 20 or so years. Knobcone pine trees don’t usually get very tall, maxing out at about 30 feet, and they are often scruffy-looking due to their adaptation to living on poor, gravelly soils in hot, dry areas. The needles are a faded olive-green color and are borne in bundles of three. The cones are distinctive, as they grow clustered tightly around the branches in whorls rather than at the branch tips, as in other pine species. The cones are asymmetrical and since the scales are tightly shut, they appear knobby. Cones stay on the tree for years—so long, in fact, that the wood of the branches sometimes grows around them, leaving odd bulges in the branches.