Nature's Senior Citizen

(Originally posted in NTUMC68 class website June 19, 2008)

In the current issue (July/August 2008) of VIA Magazine
(AAA Traveler's Companion), there was a short writing, "Really
Old Growth", with an illustrated photo about a Western Wonder,
the Great Basin bristlecone pines. I was thrilled to read this article
as I have paid attention to it, and once wrote about it. ( in NTUMC
Jing-Fu Bulletin ).

The VIA Magazine article says:

" For more than 10 millenniums Great Basin bristlecone pines have
been eking out existence on the 10,000-ft-high ridge of eastern
California's White Mountains. Blasted by subzero winds and
scorched by the high desert sun, these tenacious trees send out
gnarled roots to seek moisture in the thin alkaline soil. Their twisted
frames seem to speak out of both their age and the rigors of survival."

"Tree rings have revealed that some bristlecones, now dead yet still
standing, were alive when the first agrarian society appeared in the
Europe and Asia around 7000 BC."

"Methuselah, documented in 1957 as the oldest living bristlecone, (
of course the oldest living thing so far documented on earth ), still
produce viable seeds at age of 4,788."

When we talk about "longevity", think about these Great Basin
bristlecone pines on White Mountains.

If you want to appreciate these majestic ancient bristlecone pines,
you may type a keyword " bristlecone pines " on you favorite search
engine such as Google. It will change the way you think about life and
longevity.