Just visited the bristlecones last summer with the ACS. They are amazing.

Any pics?

thx for the pic

your choice of words made me wonder .... why do you think its clinging to life.. for what.. the last 1000 years????

just noting word choice.. no hidden agenda ... ken

"no hidden agenda"

Am I supposed to know what you are hinting at? LOL

Anyway, see that sharp bend in the lower left? I believe it is/was the trunk and root flare. After the tree has been blown over, only half of the big roots are in the ground ... kind of hanging with your fingers on a cliff ... clinging to life ... for millennia ...

I read that bristlecones have a lot of fine, shallow surface roots (which makes them very drought tolerant) but only a few big roots for anchor. Makes the pic look even more precarious.

Hundreds of pics. In an album on the ACS Western Region Facebook page. We found a broom on one and the Ranger took a core sample to age it and is going to let us propagate it. He's already sent the scion wood.

Somebody suggested that that person may have climbed "up" the tree and fell down on his back. Hope he is OK.

Love it!

Am I supposed to know what you are hinting at? LOL

==>>> that was the point.. i wasnt hinting at anything.. just pondering word usage ...

ken

This one is cultivated, different species too, but similar horizontal growth. Wonder how they made the tree grow like that?

Pinus thunbergii

Some will just do that naturally. This cultivar of Japanese white pine is grown specifically for its very linear, horizontal growth habit.

garden web photos · More Info

Pinus parviflora 'Fukuzumi'.

As much as I like leaners, I have to be careful growing them with the ice and wet snow I get. My Bristlecone toppled just a few weeks ago in our latest snowfall and it is growing pretty straight.

Perhaps the toppled Bristlecone will survive like the one in the OP, would be wonderful! Or have you removed it already?

I straightened it up and am thinking of moving it to a more desirable location. It bothers me that it doesn't have a very good rootball. It was a gift from a plant loving friend and came that way and I've been hoping I can improve both the rootball and form. He grew it straight up and pruned the limbs to be short, exactly like it shouldn't be. :-) Plus, it has suffered an injury somewhere down the line at the base of the trunk. It's 'healing' pretty good though. I've had it two years. It needs to be in leaner soil with more sun.

Check out the White Mtns in Cali for some old bristlecones.

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest has the Methuselah Grove with the Methuselah
tree (slightly less than 5000 years old) and an even older tree (slightly more
than 5000 years old, the oldest known individual of any species), the Patriarch Grove and the Schulman Grove

Not sure if I want
those ancient trees in my front yard, although they are beautiful in their own way, enjoy!

Interesting,
you can girdle a bristlecone up to 90% and the 10% will live on vigorously
(albeit growing slowly as it has always done). Would look like the tree on the left, I think. Girdle less and you would get the tree on the right.