Short answers, pulled from the story.
The oldest known individual pine is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in the White Mountains of California, nicknamed "Methuselah", estimated to be around 4,800 years old. An older individual near Wheeler Peak was dated at 4,900 years but has since been cut down.
Most pine species reach between 15 and 45 metres tall. The tallest known individual is an 83.45-metre sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana) in Yosemite National Park. The smallest species are the Siberian dwarf pine and the Potosi pinyon.
Serotiny is a strategy in which pine cones remain sealed for years until an environmental trigger causes them to open and release seeds. The most common form, pyriscence, uses resin to keep cones shut until a forest fire melts it, as seen in Pinus radiata and Pinus muricata.
Pines are native to the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in Mexico. World Flora Online accepts 134 species-rank taxa, making Pinus the largest genus among the conifers. One species, Pinus merkusii, crosses the equator into Sumatra at 2 degrees south.
Pine nuts are used in foods including pesto alla genovese, and the inner bark can be eaten raw or dried as a flour substitute. Pine resin flavours the Greek wine retsina and yields turpentine oil. Pine soot is used to make Chinese calligraphy ink sticks, and pine needles have been woven into baskets in Latin America.
Pines held religious significance in ancient Egypt (associated with Osiris), ancient Greece (linked to Pitthea and Dionysus), and ancient Rome (worshipped in festivals of Attis and Cybele). The Buryat people of Siberia and Celtic Druids also revered Pinus sylvestris. In Chinese tradition the pine symbolises longevity, and in 1924 Italian composer Ottorino Respighi dedicated his tone poem Pines of Rome to pine-clad settings in the city.