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Western Bristlecone Pine
(Pinus longaeva)
Bristlecone pines live in very rugged and inhospitable areas --
high elevations, poor rocky soil, exposure to high winds
and extremes of hot and cold weather.
They are very slow growing, but very tough and persistent.
The trees have the ability to retain a spark of life even when most
of their branches are dead and dry.
It is not at all unusual to find specimens that are over 1000
years old.
Some individual bristlecone pine trees are believed to be the
oldest living things on earth (over 4000 years old).
The oldest one ever found (in what is now Great Basin National Park)
was cut down in 1964 in order to study its growth rings,
and was then found to be 4862 years old!
(Read about bristlecone pines, and this particular incident.)
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