|
The Oldest Living Trees on Earth
Lets start from the top on this subject, first of all there are several ways
that trees can be classified as the oldest living;
- Continuously standing trees, those that have grown from seed, produced a
trunk that is still alive.
- Cloning new growth ability, these trees have grown from seed,
produced trunks which may have died, but produce new stems from the same
root stock.
The names of the oldest living trees in the world;
| Continuously standing trees |
Trees with cloning ability |
|
These are trees that have grown from seed, produced one, or more trunk(s)
that at least one is still alive.
This is the more common perception of the oldest living tree.
|
These are trees that have started growing from a single seed,
produced trunks, which may have died, but has continued to stay alive by
growing new trunks from the same root stock.
So even though trunks may come and go over time, as long as the original
rootstock remains alive, the tree is still living. These trees have
proven to be the oldest living organisms on earth.
|
Oldest Living Tree;
Individual Tree Name; Methuselah
Species Name; Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva)
Location; California, United States
Age; 4,841 years old in 2010
Estimated germination year; 2832 BC
|
Oldest Living Tree;
Individual Tree Name; Pando
Species Name; Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
Location; Utah, United States
Age; 80,000 to 1 million years
|
 |
 |
| Photo of a Methuselah Grove, (not showing the actual tree, as
its location is secret) in the Inyo National Forest, California, USA. Photo by Oke on 15 August 2004
|
Photo of the Pando clone colony of a single male Quaking Aspen (Populus
tremuloides) located in Utah, USA. All the clone trunks are determined to be
part of a single living organism by identical genetic markers and are all
connected by one continuous large underground root system. |
|
|