The actual degree of serotiny and fire mortality in "B. prionotes" varies with latitude, or, more likely, climate. Observations suggest that it is always killed by fire in the north of its range, which is relatively hot and dry, and where individual plants are usually smaller, but may survive fire in the cooler, moister, south. Moreover, it is essentially non-serotinous in the south, since all seed is released by the end of the second year, but seed retention increases steadily to the north, and at the northern end of its range, it typically takes around four years for a plant to release half of its seed in the absence of bushfire, with some seed retained for up to 12 years.