A Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in California's White Mountains, nicknamed 'Methuselah,' was ring-dated in 1957 to roughly 4,850 years old, making it among the oldest known single-stem trees. Its exact location is kept secret to protect it; an even older unnamed bristlecone pine in the same range has been informally reported but not independently published.
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A Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in California's White Mountains, nicknamed 'Methuselah,' was ring-dated in 1957 to roughly 4,850 years old, making it among the oldest known single-stem trees. Its exact location is kept secret to protect it; an even older unnamed bristlecone pine in the same range has been informally reported but not independently published.
The greatest verified age of any individual, non-clonal (single-stem) tree, established by ring-count dating. Distinct from the oldest clonal organism (a connected root system of many stems), which the Registry tracks separately.
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Permanent ID limitsregistry.com/limits/LR-METHUSELAH-OLDEST-TREE
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Limits Registry. LR-METHUSELAH-OLDEST-TREE. Oldest known single-stem tree. 2026.