While we were excited by the prospect of dark skies and meteors later that evening, our aim for the day was to see some earthbound wonders: Great Basin's
bristlecone pines.
It could be an Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir or Rocky Mountain
bristlecone pine in Colorado, or a foxtail, whitebark or limber pine in the Sierra Nevada.
"We did a lot of hiking and found a couple of sites of
bristlecone pines, and one in particular that we honed in on," said Routson.
I can't pretend anymore that I'll keep company with a
Bristlecone Pine for more than an indifferent fraction of its life span.
Because
bristlecone pine wood, dating back about 9,000 years, has been found, it is probable that this chronology can be extended even further back.
According to dendrochronology, the
bristlecone pine, found in the White Mountains of the California High Sierras, is the oldest life form on Earth.
Englemann spruce, Douglas fir and
bristlecone pine provide dense forests.
Apparently it's the Pinus longaeva, better known as the
bristlecone pine of Nevada.
Chile has 12 native tree species, including the alerce, whose typical life span (over 3,000 years) is exceeded only by California's
bristlecone pine, and the araucaria or "monkey puzzle tree," the world's oldest surviving tree species.
* The oldest tree on record is a
bristlecone pine on Mt.
No, not Aerosmith--it's a 4,723-year-old
bristlecone pine (Pinus called the Methuselah Tree.
ON a desolate mountain-top in California lives the world's oldest living organism - a gnarled and twisted
bristlecone pine named Methuselah.