Pinus longaeva

Great Basin bristlecone pine or western bristlecone pine is a member of the pine or Pinaceae family and is native mostly to the cold sub-alpine climates at high elevations in California, Utah and Nevada. It can reach up to 16 m in height and 2.5 m or more in diameter and often is referred to as the oldest known living non-clonal organism on Earth.

It is one of 3 species of closely related bristlecone pines:

• Great Basin bristlecone pine (P. longaeva)
• Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine (P. aristata)
• Foxtail pine (P. balfouriana)

• The ancient trees are gnarled and stunted at high altitudes, with reddish brown deeply fissured bark, often dying except for narrow strips of living tissue.
• Needles are 2.0–4.0 cm long, curved, dark green in bundles of 5, with few white resin flecks appearing on the needles, unlike P. aristata. Needles are crowded and thick towards the ends of the branches.
• Male pollen cones are cylindro-ellipsoid shaped, colored purple-red, 7–10 mm long; seed cones mature in 2 years and are ovoid-cylindrical, 5–10 cm long and 3–4 cm broad when closed, initially green or purple, ripening to orange-buff at 16 months. They have numerous thin, fragile scales, each scale with a bristle-like spine 2–5 mm long. The cones open to 4–6 cm, shedding soon after dropping seeds.