Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata)
Where: Living at high altitude on arid, windswept mountain slopes of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, as many as a dozen of these trees have been found that are more than 1,200 years old — and four that were more than 2,000 years old. While not as old as the Great Basin Bristlecone (some of which are older than 4,000), this bristlecone is Colorado’s oldest living native plant. It tends to grow in the “rain shadow” (where mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather) of other mountains, among the bedrock and talus where you wouldn’t think a tree would survive.
What’s cool: Their contorted bark, their ability to stabilize mountain slopes and retain snow loads. They also sustain birds such as Clark’s nutcrackers, who eat their seeds.
What’s not: White pine blister rust, an Asian fungus, threatens these trees, which take as long as 50 years to produce their first seeds.
At your house: Nurseries have developed cultivars of bristlecones, some dwarf and some not. Sources: The Denver Post;
