“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer -“I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree… Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”
The Bristlecone Pine Tree is likely the oldest (non-clonal) tree on Earth. A stand of these pines in Nevada contains several trees over 3,000 years old and was the site of the Prometheus tree, which was cut down and dated to be just under 5,000 years old. The Methuselah tree of the White Mountains of California is around 4,850 years of age, it was surpassed by the discovery of a nearby tree that is estimated to be more than 5,060 years old. Although their trunks look dead, portions of the tree are often still producing green needles and purple cones which open up to be brown with a distinctive bristle. – I shot this photo at a high altitude location in Wyoming. – Jack Atkinson
