Sodium and boiling amyl alcohol reduce it to a tetrahydroretene, but if it heated with phosphorus and hydriodic acid to 260 °C, a dodecahydride is formed.

The presence of traces of retene in the air is an indicator of forest fires; it is a major product of pyrolysis of conifer trees.

[1][failed verification – see discussion] It is also present in effluents from wood pulp and paper mills.

[2] Retene, together with cadalene, simonellite and ip-iHMN, is a biomarker of vascular plants, which makes it useful for paleobotanic analysis of rock sediments.

[3] A recent study has shown retene, which is a component of the Amazonian organic PM10, is cytotoxic to human lung cells.