Took a little trip to visit the "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest" in the White Mountains on the California-Nevada border last week. Amazing trees - up to 5,000 years old - and they grow only at very high elevation.
Most of them look more dead than alive, tortured by the extreme winds at these elevations, but they have a stark beauty:
Check out the elevation here on my GPS unit:
Most of the terrain at this altitude is just a moonscape, with impossibly blue cobalt skies:
I have spent a lot of time at/above treeline in the Colorado Rockies. I study the trees closely on the way up. The last few have a hard life indeed. They try everything they can to survive. Makes you realize how thin skinned Earth is.
Are those tall, skinny trees Poplar? 50 years ago Poplar trees were common here for wind break around building sites. They were short lived trees and you rarely see them anymore. Thanks for the pic from down under!
I remember those, Lombardy Poplar, were very popular, so to speak, in windy dry areas. They would plant a row of them to help reduce air speed and evaporation. They didn't live long though and had to be cut down. I bet that was fun, cutting a 50 foot tree in the wind.