bristlecone pine

bristlecone pine (plural bristlecone pines)

1. Any of certain small, slow-growing pine trees found in the western United States, of three species in Pinus subsect. Balfourianae, some of which are over 4,000 years old.

• (small, slow-growing pines): Rocky Mountains bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona; Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), of Utah, Nevada, and eastern California; foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana), of California and southern Oregon.