Trees live anywhere from a few years to thousands of years. There is a bristlecone pine growing in California's White Mountains that has been dated as at least 4700 years old. Trees grow just about everywhere on Earth , from extreme cold regions near the Arctic and the Antarctic to hot tropical regions around the equator and even in deserts. Although trees can grow singly, in nature they more often grow in stands consisting of one or of a mixture of species. As more trees toward the outside of the stand grow and become mature, they drop seeds and continue the spread of the stand.
Forests are plant communities made up of the trees, shrubs, and many other plants and animals.
In North America, forests typically include only a few different species of trees, but in tropical forests, hundreds of different species can be found. Tallest Trees Australian eucalyptus , originally 492 ft tall, the eucalyptus at Watts River, Victoria, Australia is officially the tallest tree ever. Estimated to be about 1,000 years old, it is 367 ft 5 in tall with a diameter of 10 ft 4 in. Oldest Trees Bristlecone pines are found in California, Nevada, and Utah. Some of these trees in eastern California's White Mountains are more than 4,500 years old.