![](https://d3ilqtpdwi981i.cloudfront.net/O6IUkL5Z7KjtM_WcRU0j9HZTm9A=/425x550/smart/https://bepress-attached-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/56/38/3b/56383b84-cb29-4cab-8110-e07a9e490f89/thumbnail_291ead44-0934-4fa2-a9ea-f8e3a5a52327.jpg)
Many desert perennials are long-lived, but there are few data on ages or population structures of desert plants. We used 2 methods to estimate ages of a population of Yucca brevifolia (Joshua tree) in southwestern Utah from a 14-year census of plant sizes. Plant height at the 1st census ranged from 0.08 m to 6.0 m, and trees grew in height at a mean rate of 3.75 cm ⋅ yr–1. Plants also increased slowly in basal diameter (0.142 cm ⋅ yr–1) and branch length (0.024 m ⋅ yr–1), but basal diameter varied greatly from year to year, with many plants decreasing in diameter between sequential censuses. Forms of a nonlinear growth equation (the Richards function) did not fit the data on growth in height, but a simple linear relationship fit the data well. Using height as a linear predictor of age, we estimated that ages of a sample of 69 Joshua trees ranged from300 years old, with 75% of the trees between 20 and 100 years and 11% over 150 years old. These data support the assumption that Joshua trees are indeed long-lived.