Plant Tuesday

Hello bloggers, how is everyone this cool, sunny May day well that's what it is like here in Newie. The book I was for my creature day info has now moved onto plants and such so today I will feature the Bristlecone Pine.

Way back in time like before the great pyramids of Egypt when ancient people were still working on Stonehenge a little tree started growing in the White Mountains of California, USA and it could still be alive today as it was a bristlecone pine the world's longest living tree.

Trees often die when insects or fungi start to eat away at them, but bristlecones have very thick, hard wood that's full of oily, strong smelling chemicals. This makes it hard for wood munching insects and fungi to get in.

You might think for a tree to survive so long it would need to live somewhere warm and sheltered with lots of lovely soil but you would be wrong. The most ancient bristlecone pines live 3000 metres or 10,000 ft up in the mountains in a cold, windy, dry desert like area.

They don't grow in proper soil, it's more like pebbly gravel, but this has advantages as the bristlecone has little competition from other plants, few animals eat them and few humans chop them down.