Hi Kay , the desert creosote is the plank you might be thinking of . I guess
the off road vehicles have taken their toll and these are now a protected
species. live thousands of years just to have your life snuffed by a
careless
motorcycle rider. Mark


-----Original Message-----
From: Kay Lavalier <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 9:27 PM
Subject: Re: Bristlecone Pine


>Andrew Vik
>[log in to unmask]
>
>John:
>
>Several years ago, I read about a species of desert shrub in the southwest
US
>that had been dated at around 14,000 years old. This plant starts out as a
>normal looking bush. As it grows outward, the original mass in the middle
>dies. This process eventually leads to a large ring of scrub with bare
earth
>in the middle. The researchers dug up the semi fossilized original stumps
at
>the center of the rings and did carbon dating to arrive at the 14,000 year
>mark. While it is true that the original plant had died long before, the
>entire ring came from just one seed sprouting a very long time ago.
>
>Andrew
>
>Cramer, John wrote:
>
>> True, the oldest living bristlecone pine is about 4700 years old.  The
>> 20,000 figure Mark used is about right for the length of the tree ring
>> record.  That is, current living trees plus dead but still extant trees
>> combine to give a much longer record than that available just from living
>> trees.  This record has been critical in calibrating the carbon 14 dating
>> technique.
>