October 02, 2025

The 3 Reasons This Tree Has Lived 5000 Years

3 minutes

To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

Great basin bristlecone pine tree: a species of pine tree that includes many of the longest-lived individual trees on Earth.

Bark beetles: the common name for a subfamily of beetles that has destroyed millions of acres of forest across the Western United States.

Terpenes: waxy chemicals that increase wood density in certain pine trees.

Bark morphology: a trait of certain bristlecones in which strips of exposed wood extend up and down the tree, allowing them to pass nutrients even when other parts of the trunk have died.

Dolomite: a type of rock high in magnesium and calcium that turns into extremely alkaline soils.

Extremophile: an organism that is tolerant to environmental extremes.

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