The Tree That Thrives on Nothing

High in California's White Mountains, at nearly 10,000 feet, the bristlecone pines cling to slopes of bare dolomite rock. The soil is almost powder. Rainfall barely reaches ten inches a year. Winds rake the ridgeline so fiercely that the trees grow twisted and stripped, their wood polished smooth on the windward side. Most of the trunk appears dead — just pale, exposed grain spiraling skyward.…