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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 in to 6.0 in, and trees grew in height at a mean rate of 3.75 em (.) 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 from < 20 to > 300 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.