Pinus longaeva D.K.Bailey

Tree to 18 m, trunk erect, strongly tapered; mature trees in their natural habitat have massive gnarled and largely dead trunks up to 3.5 m dbh, with only small living parts remaining, or are multi-stemmed ‘piggyback’ trees where successive low branches become erect stems in the shelter of the previous trunks, which then die due to wind exposure. Bark scaly, grooved and yellow-brown to russet. Crown open and irregular; cultivated specimens are relatively faster-growing with a conical crown so far. Branchlets reddish brown to grey, hairy; vegetative buds not resinous. Leaves in fascicles of five, persisting for 10–40 (–45) years (the longest of any tree; Ewers & Schmid 1981), fascicles held closely together, arranged on branches like a bottlebrush, shiny dark green (yellower-green in less healthy individuals) on the outer faces, a white stomatal band on the two inner faces, straight or slightly curved, triangular in cross-section, 2.5–3.5 × 0.05 cm (to 5 cm long in cultivation), with two external, longitudinal resin ducts, apex acute. As in Pinus balfouriana, it has no white resin flecks in its foliage, a very conspicuous feature in its other relative P. aristata and a useful identification character. Fascicle sheaths peeling backwards, then mostly deciduous but the basal scales persisting. Cataphylls to 0.8 cm long, reddish brown to dark brown. Male strobili orange-brown, ovoid, 1–1.2 cm. Female cones subterminal, solitary or in pairs, sessile or short-pedunculate, 6–12 cm long, purple, ripening to rusty reddish brown, taking about 16 months to mature; mature cones ovoid with reddish resin deposits. Scales 100–140, opening at maturity with a rounded base; scales thick, soft, reddish brown; apophysis raised, rhombic, reddish brown; umbo dorsal, with a stiff, slender prickle about 3–4 mm long. Seeds 7–9 mm long; seed wings effective, 14–18 mm long. Bailey 1970, Thieret 1993, Farjon 2005a. Distribution USA: eastern California, southern Nevada, Utah. Habitat Dry, rocky ridges or slopes between 1700 and 3400 m asl. Pinus longaeva is intolerant of shade. Harsh environmental conditions of its natural habitat cause it to grow very slowly, such that individuals of this species are among the oldest trees in the world, some aged to 5000 years. The oldest trees are of the ‘piggyback’ type, with up to four successive trunks building on the backs of the first (Schulman 1958). USDA Hardiness Zone 3–4. Conservation status Least Concern. Illustration Farjon 2005a; NT607. Cross-reference S373. Taxonomic note Pinus longaeva is one of the three ‘foxtail’ pines (together with P. aristata and P. balfouriana), and was described relatively recently after investigation of this group by Bailey (1970). It is more similar to P. balfouriana than to P. aristata; the foliage is effectively indistinguishable from the former, with the most reliable identification being the cones, where the base is more rounded than conic, and umbos have a distinct 3–4 mm spine, unlike the ≤1 mm prickle on P. balfouriana.