World’s Oldest Tree
Ever wonder what the age of the oldest tree in the world is? Hundreds of years old? Thousands? Or maybe even hundreds of thousands of years old?
As with most natural living things on this earth, there’s some debate about exactly which tree is deemed to be the oldest. Regardless of the debate, here’s a list of some quite special (and old) trees/bushes:
- UPDATE 20 April, 2008: Since posting this article, a new discovery has been made in Sweden. A tenacious spruce tree with a root system 9,550 years old.
- The most likely contender at this stage is a tree that goes by the name of “Methuselah“. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Methuselah, would now be 4,769 years old. Methuselah is a Bristlecone Pine located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California. Methuselah isn’t the only “oldie” in this forest. The other Bristlecone Pines in this forest are all over 4,000 years old too!
- A tree called Prometheus (also known as WPN-114) was thought to be around 4,900 years old (some reports claim 5,000 years old - until it was cut down for research purposes in 1964. Prometheus, also a Bristlecone Pine, grew at Wheeler in eastern Nevada, USA.
- A creosote bush called “King Clone” in the Mojave Desert is said to be 11,700 years old.
- In 2005, it was thought that another creosote bush in Palm Springs could be older than King Clone - as much as 20,000 years old. I’m not sure if this report was confirmed or not.
- In 1995, an extraordinary Huon pine tree was found in Tasmania, Australia. What was thought to be many trees covering 2.5 acres, appeared to be just one tree - a very old tree. Some media reports claimed it could be 30,000 to 40,000 years old. Scientists weren’t confirming this, but said that it was plausible that the trees could actually be one very old, underground tree.
- And… not exactly a living tree, but last year, scientists claimed to have found what could be the world’s oldest tree - in the form of a fossil. The tree, called Wattieza would have lived around 385 - 397 million years ago.
Tags: australia, california, tasmania, tree, world records
April 21st, 2008 at 7:53 am
[...] this record supercedes the previous record for the oldest tree that I wrote about earlier this year. At the time, it was understood that the oldest tree on Earth [...]
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:15 pm
There are some Yew Trees in the UK said to be thousands of years old.