Mondo Knows Facts
Some bristlecone pines are nearly 5,000 years old
The oldest known individual, Methuselah, germinated before the pyramids were built
Great Basin bristlecone pines in the White Mountains of California survive in cold, dry, windy conditions on poor soil. Their wood is so resinous and dense that dead sections resist rot for thousands of years, which is how ring counts can reach back almost five millennia. Methuselah is estimated at around 4,850 years old.
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Tags: trees, age, california
Some bristlecone pines are nearly 5,000 years old: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The oldest known individual, Methuselah, germinated before the pyramids were built. The figure is taken from US National Park Service, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.