Survivor

Just how old can these junipers get? I've heard some amazing claims for bristlecones!
Great shot, Steve!
Seen on 'Hill Walking ...'

Thanks, Andy! Apparently junipers >1000 years old are well-documented. I'd guess this one is probably several centuries, but I don't have tree-ring data! (You can get tree-ring data by coring the tree with a hollow drill, which doesn't harm it. Usta be involved with some of that when I was in college.)

Bristlecones are not closely related--they're pines, most closely related to the scrubby piñon pines of the American west. But some bristlecones _are_ the oldest documented living things on the planet. I have some pix and should put together an album:
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/39691916/in/album/453245?lc=1#comments
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/39735058/in/album/852092?lc=1#comments

Yes, an album would be good!
By the way I've heard claims for a ground level pine tree in Tasmania that some of which are thought to be 10,000 years old or more. From memory, and it is a long time since I saw a documentary on it, it spreads along the ground very slowly dying and forming new shoots as it goes and is thought to be effectively the same organism rather than the dying and re-birth of most other trees. I will try and find out more on it and let you know...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_trees
Here it is!