Bristlcone growth recordCourtesy ARTiFactor

Bristlecone Pines Break 4,650-Year Growth Record

The Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in Tucson studied 678 tree ring radii of bristlecone pines, both living and dead, from a site on the White Mountains and two sites in Nevada—on Mount Washington and Pearl Peak.

Among bristlecone pines at the tree line, the period from A.D. 1951 to 2000 saw a positive growth period, when the median ring width reached 0.58 millimeter, which was greater than any other 50-year median since 2650 B.C. Scientific American