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the oldest tree

This tree is almost 5,000 years old (and its location is secret)

Some of the oldest living things on Earth grow where almost nothing else can.

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The real story

Great Basin bristlecone pines live high in the mountains of the western US, around 3,000 metres up, in thin air, cold winds and almost no rain. That hardship is the secret: they grow so slowly that their wood becomes dense and full of resin, which rot, insects and fungi struggle to get through.

When drought hits, a bristlecone lets part of itself die back, keeping just a narrow strip of bark alive so the rest can go on. One tree, known as Methuselah, is around 4,800 years old. Its exact location is kept secret to protect it from people.

What the narrator says

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The facts we checked

  • The oldest known bristlecone pine (California's White Mountains) is about 4,850 years old, older than the Giza pyramids
  • Its exact location is kept secret to protect it
  • Bristlecones can survive with just a thin strip of living bark
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