The pale bark upon an old stem of the small knobwood tree is different to the reddish brown of the young stem also shown in this Album.

The large swollen knobs or stem mounds that started off with spines only, are characteristic of the old stems. Old knobs lose their cone-shape as seen here (and sometimes also their spines), carrying on growing into various ovoid to hemispherical shapes. Some pale lichen renders this trunk paler than it would otherwise be (Coates Palgrave, 2002).