bristlecone pine (redirected from Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine)

bristlecone pine, common name for the pine species Pinus longaeva, found in the White Mountains of California. Specimens are known that are nearly 5,000 years old.

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bristlecone pine [‚bris·əl‚kōn ′pīn]

(botany)

A small slow-growing evergreen tree of the genusPinusthat grows at high altitudes in the western United States, having dense branches with rust-brown bark and short needles in bunches of five and thorn-tipped cone scales. The two types areP. longaeva, which lives longer than any other tree (over 4000 years), andP. monophylla, the single-leaf pinyon.