Humans have long held a fascination with pine trees and their roles in the natural world around us. They are mysterious, beautiful, and ancient trees that can live to be hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of years old.
There are around 125 different pine species that have been identified—some among the longest-living trees and organisms in the world.
In fact, some trees from the Bristlecone Pine species (Pinus longaeva) have been carbon-dated to be around 5,000 years old. (1)
While the human genome has over three billion base pairs, the Loblolly pine species has been shown to have 22 billion base pairs—more than seven times the amount of genetic material in us humans. (2)…