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I'd always thought that the Methuselah Tree in California was the oldest living tree. Apparently there's some disagreement, as Old Tjikko is a clonal tree, mean
by altec3 7y ago
I'd always thought that the Methuselah Tree in California was the oldest living tree. Apparently there's some disagreement, as Old Tjikko is a clonal tree, meaning the trunks come and go but the roots stay living underneath [1].
So if you're counting non-clone trees, Methuselah is the oldest. If you're counting clonal trees, some Quaking Aspens are believed to be between 80,000 and 1,000,000 years old [2].
[1] https://allthatsinteresting.com/old-tjikko https://allthatsinteresting.com/old-tjikko
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)
- saghm 7y ago> some Quaking Aspens are believed to be between 80,000 and 1,000,000 years old [2]. 1,000,000? I don't see anything in the Wikipedia article referring to anything higher than 100,000. Was this a typo, or am I missing something?
- altec3 7y agoI got that figure from the Norway Spruce article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_abies#Longevity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picea_abies#Longevity edit: I've also found this snippet: Individuals may reach ages in excess of 1 million years [1] [1] https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/46/1/25/262587 https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/46/1/25/262587
- samirillian 7y agoThere's also Prometheus, which was older than Methusaleh but was cut down by people looking for the old trees. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree)
- mmanfrin 7y agoWhen I had ambitions for general interest blogging, I had an article kicking around in my head on the dangers of being a superlative tree. Prometheus was the oldest tree, killed by a core sample. Tree of Ténéré, the most isolated tree in the world, felled by a drunk driver. [1] The Senator, the biggest cypress in the world was lit afire by an arsonist. [2] Kiidk'yaas, a rare golden spruce, was felled by someone protesting logging. [3] I also remember reading about the 2nd (largest, tallest, widest?) tree in the world being lit alight by someone smoking meth in its branches, but I can't find the source or name. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas
- ricree 7y agoThe meth example you're thinking of is probably The Senator, which you've already linked.
- mmanfrin 7y agoI think you're right.
- Mengkudulangsat 7y agoThe Kiidk'yaas one is bad-ass! I hope they make a movie out of him. Edit: They did! [1] [1] https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/film-review-hadwins-judgement/ https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/film-review-hadw...
- henrikschroder 7y agoIf you visit Muir Woods north of SF, they refuse to tell you which tree is the tallest in the park. For good reason. People suck.
- benj111 7y agoWell there's always a tallest tree in the forest, if the current tallest is cut down, another becomes the tallest, so there's no particular gain or loss over and above any other big tree.
- usrusr 7y agoWhich is exactly the point: the park does not want to lose any big old tree, and singling out superlative individuals would make them targets in a way that the collective isn't. People out for the attention of attacking a superlative individual won't just fall back to any random tree.
- pyreal 7y agoMy reading of the Wikipedia article re: Kiidk'yaas suggests that it was felled by someone protesting protesting logging.
- jeffwass 7y agoTerrible. Reminds me of this Far Side cartoon. https://jennafeld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/tree.jpeg https://jennafeld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/tree.jpeg (Link to the image on a random person’s WordPress site)
- tomgp 7y agoThere's speculation that this some yew trees may be of similar age to Methuselah, notably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llangernyw_Yew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llangernyw_Yew & http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7505706.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7505...