bristlecone pine

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Related to bristlecone pine: Great Basin Bristlecone Pine

bris·tle·cone pine

(brĭs′əl-kōn′)

Either of two small slow-growing pines (Pinus aristata or P. longaeva) found at higher elevations of the western United States, having needles in fascicles of five. Specimens of P. longaeva in east-central California are among the oldest known living trees, achieving ages well over 4,000 years.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bristlecone pine

(ˈbrɪsəlˌkəʊn)

(Plants) a coniferous tree, Pinus aristata, of the western US, bearing cones with bristle-like prickles: one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bris′tlecone pine′

a small pine, Pinus aristata, of the high S Rocky Mountains, bearing cones with spine-tipped scales: believed to be the oldest living trees.

[1890–95]

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Noun

bristlecone pine - small slow-growing upland pine of western United States (Rocky Mountains) having dense branches with fissured rust-brown bark and short needles in bunches of 5 and thorn-tipped cone scales; among the oldest living things some over 4500 years old

Pinus aristata, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine

pine, pine tree, true pine - a coniferous tree

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References in periodicals archive ?

In the end, a compromise bill proposing a 76,000-acre Great Basin National Park, protecting not only Lehman Caves but also the bristlecone pine groves and alpine peaks and lakes of the Snake Range, was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Oct.

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Foxtail pine, coast redwood, Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine and western juniper can live into their 2,000s, and the oldest giant sequoia lived to the exceedingly ripe old age of3,266.

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Donald Currey, a young researcher at Wheeler Peak in Nevada, was examining a Great Basin bristlecone pine when he got his tree corer stuck.

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The tree is only three centuries years younger than the long-vaunted old-timer, Methuselah, a bristlecone pine tree in California's White Mountains, which is 4,849 years old.

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Valerie depicts the specific trees who call to her: Bristlecone pine, Sierra Juniper, Limber Pine--trees of the Great Basin, particularly the ones growing at high attitudes.

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Among the most ancient known trees in the world are a Norway spruce in Sweden, "Methuselah," a bristlecone pine in California, a llangernyw yew from Wales, the Sarv-e Abar, a cypress in Iran, and "General Sherman," a sequoia from northern California.

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That distinction belongs to a bristlecone pine in California's White Mountains, which is over 5,000 years old.

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The center gathers seeds from five native white pine species - western white pine, sugar pine, whitebark pine, limber pine and bristlecone pine.

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Mann's most commonly used press photo shows him with a cross-section of a bristlecone pine tree.

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One specimen of Adansonia digitata was carbon dated to an age of at least 1,275 years, falling short of the legendary bristlecone pine but easily taking the record for the oldest flowering plant.