The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest sits at 10,000′ elevation in California’s White Mountain range, just east of the Sierra Nevada and Owens Valley. The main draws are the ancient specimens that are over 3000 – and sometimes 4000 – years old. The trees aren’t huge like their neighbors to the west, the Giant Sequoia, but […]
Bristlecone pine
Age, character, and beauty
January has always been one of my favorite times of the year for bonsai. Full of repotting and show prep, wiring and cutback, the month entails some of the hardest and most rewarding work of the year. It also fills me with optimism for all of the bonsai work the year will bring. For all […]
Bristlecone pine deadwood
Old Bristlecone Pines can exhibit outstanding deadwood. Some of it is gray and weathered – other bits look freshly sandblasted. Here are some shots of deadwood from along the Methuselah Trail in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Bristlecone pine deadwood Dead branch Twisting deadwood
Most ancient forest
By far the best Bay Island Bonsai field trip of the year was our visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in California’s White Mountain range. The slow-growing Bristlecone Pines are a marvel – and this is the best place to see them. Along the Methuselah Trail alone, 11 of the 19 known 4,000+ year-old […]
Bristlecone pine
The name “Bristlecone Pine” refers to a cluster of slow-growing pines with bristles on their cones. The longest lived of these, the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, Pinus longaeva, is native to isolated patches in Nevada, Utah, and California. Many of the most ancient cluster in the White Mountain range, east of the Owens Valley and […]