Natural Environment Blog

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.

I remember, as a kid, being fascinated in world records. For some reason, I loved reading about anything that was the biggest, fastest, longest, oldest, tallest… anything that made it stand out from the rest of the pack.

Now many years later, I still remember reading that the tallest tree was a California redwood. And if memory serves me correctly, the 2nd tallest was also a California redwood. I’ve now learned that these are also known by other names - such as Coast redwood, redwood, coastal sequoia, palo colorado, giant redwood, and of course, it’s technical name of Sequoia sempervirens.

So, given that there are so many tall California redwoods, I decided to search for the top 10 redwood trees. What I ended up with was a list of the top 15 tallest redwoods.

These were all measured by tape drop and/or Criterion 400 laser surveyor. The tape drop is the most accurate method of measuring a tree. You can see the tape drop in action on the tallest tree in the world.

There’s little argument that the California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living trees on our planet. These trees often grow to more than 100 meters tall.

In August 2006, a new “tallest tree in the world” was found. Once again, it was a California redwood, and it’s location was Redwood Forest ( Redwood National Park, California). This tree has been named “Hyperion” (from Greek mythology) and stands 115.55 meters (379.1 feet) tall!

How did they Measure the Tree?

The most accurate way of measuring a tall tree like Hyperion is to climb to the top, and drop a weighted tape measure. And that’s exactly what Steve Sillett did. Here’s a 2 part video of Steve measuring the world’s tallest tree for The Guinness Book of World Records. This video footage was taken for National Geographic.

Part 1:

Part 2:
And here’s Jim Speckler measuring the same tree:

So there you have it, the world’s tallest tree - or should I say, the world’s tallest, measured, tree!