Bristlecone Pine - Oldest Living Organisms

Oldest Living Organisms

The bristlecone pines are the oldest single living organisms known (though some plants form clonal colonies which may be many times older). The oldest bristlecone pines are single plants that have been alive for a little less than 5,000 years. These very old trees are of great importance in dendrochronology or tree-ring dating.

The oldest (non-clonal, acknowledged) living organism known is a bristlecone pine tree nicknamed "Methuselah" (after Methuselah, the longest-lived person in the Bible). It is located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of eastern California; however, its precise location is undisclosed by the U.S. Forest Service to protect the tree from vandalism. The age of Methuselah was measured by core samples in 1957 to be 4,789 years old.

In the Snake Range of eastern Nevada Donald R. Currey, a student of the University of North Carolina, was taking core samples of bristlecones in 1964. He discovered that "Prometheus" in a cirque below Wheeler Peak was over 4,000 years old. It is thought that his coring tool broke, so the U.S. Forest service granted permission to cut down "Prometheus". There are many different versions of this story, and nobody can say for sure whether or not Currey knew the age of the tree before cutting it down. 4,844 rings were counted on a cross-section of the tree, making "Prometheus" at least 4,844 years old, the oldest known non-clonal living thing.

The other two species, Pinus balfouriana and Pinus aristata are also long-lived, though not to the extreme extent of P. longaeva; specimens of both have been measured or estimated to be up to 3,000 years old. It is rumored that a specimen older than "Methuselah" has been discovered, but this has not been widely publicized.

The Rocky Mountain population is severely threatened by an introduced fungal disease known as white pine blister rust, and by pine beetles.