What Is the Oldest Tree in the World | Worlds Oldest Tree What Is the Oldest Tree in the World? By Kate Goldbaum, Staff Writer | August 23, 2016 12:40pm ET MORE Credit: Thomas Ramsauer | Shutterstock.com The planet's trees have seen plenty of history pass by their trunks. In fact, they began to populate Earth 385 million years ago, toward the end of the Devonian period. Considered living historical records, the organisms can withstand generations of development and change. But which tree has been around the longest? Until 2013, the oldest individual tree in the world was Methuselah, a 4,845-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in the White Mountains of California. Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Group then announced the age of another P. longaeva also located in the White Mountains — this one 5,062 years old. Europe's oldest tree , crowned in 2016, is a 1,075-year-old Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) growing in Greece.

The tree — named Adonis after the Greek god of beauty, youth and desire — took root in A.D. 941, when the Vikings were still raiding along European coastlines. Europe is home to some even longer-lived trees, but these have yet to be officially dated. [ Nature's Giants: Photos of the Tallest Trees on Earth ] "Adonis," A Bosnian Pine living high in the mountains of Greece, is Europe's oldest officially dated tree, at 1,075 years. Credit: Dr Oliver Konter, Mainz For instance, living in a churchyard of the Llangernyw village in North Wales, the Llangernyw Yew is estimated to be at least 4,000 years old. The yew tree (Taxus baccata) is believed to have taken root sometime during Britain's Bronze Age . Clonal trees Though these are some of the oldest individual trees in the world, they are technically not the oldest living organisms . There are several clonal colonies — which are made up of genetically identical trees connected by a single root system — that are much older.

For example, the Pando, or "trembling giant," is a clonal colony made up of more than 40,000 individual quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) trees, according to the U.S. Forest Service . Located in Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah, the colony is estimated to be an astounding 80,000 years old. Called Old Tjikko, this 9,550-year-old trunk from a clonal Norway spruce is a record-breaker. Credit: Leif Kullman In 2008, peculiar circumstances led to the discovery of the world's oldest individual from a clonal tree: Old Tjikko, a 9,550-year-old Norway spruce located the in Fulufjället Mountains in Sweden, according to scientists at Umeå University. Old Tjikko is suspected to be the only living trunk of an ancient clonal colony like the Pando. The tree's true age was revealed by carbon-14 dating its root system. According to a statement from Umeå University , scientists found four generations of spruce remains at the site, all with the same genetic makeup.

Spruce trees can multiply with the root penetrating branches to produce exact copies of themselves, so while the individual trunk is younger, the organism has been cloning itself for at least 9,550 years. Umeå University also reported that a cluster of around 20 spruces were found in the Swedish mountains that are estimated to be over 8,000 years old. The trees are able to survive very harsh weather conditions, but a warming climate has allowed them to thrive. Compared with all of these ancient trees, the oldest living animal , a 183-year-old tortoise, is a young whipper snapper. Editor's Note: This article was first published in 2013 and updated with new information in 2016. Original article on Live Science. Editor's Recommendations Methuselah | The world's 10 oldest living trees | MNN - Mother Nature Network The world's 10 oldest living trees By: Bryan Nelson on Oct. 27, 2016, 1:29 p.m.

2 of 12 Methuselah Until 2013, Methuselah, an ancient bristlecone pine was the oldest known non-clonal organism on Earth. While Methuselah still stands as of 2016 at the ripe old age of 4,848 in the White Mountains of California, in Inyo National Forest, another bristlecone pine in the area was discovered to be over 5,000 years old . Methuselah and its unnamed senior pine's exact locations are kept a close secret in order to protect them. You can still visit the grove where Methuselah hides, but you'll have to guess at which tree it is. Could this one be it? 11 animals on the verge of extinction Methuselah Until 2013, Methuselah, an ancient bristlecone pine was the oldest known non-clonal organism on Earth. While Methuselah still stands as of 2016 at the ripe old age of 4,848 in the White Mountains of California, in Inyo National Forest, another bristlecone pine in the area was discovered to be over 5,000 years old .

Methuselah and its unnamed senior pine's exact locations are kept a close secret in order to protect them. You can still visit the grove where Methuselah hides, but you'll have to guess at which tree it is. Could this one be it? SPONSORED Bristlecone Pine - Pinus longaeva Bristlecone Pine Genus: Pinus Species: longaeva If you could imagine a living tree as old as the pyramids of Egypt, what do you think it would look like? It would look like a bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, the oldest known tree species in the world. The bristlecone pine only lives in scattered, arid mountain regions of six western states of America, but the oldest are found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California. There the pines exist in an exposed, windswept, harsh environment, free of competition from other plants and the ravages of insects and disease. The oldest bristlecones usually grow at elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet.

The oldest known tree is "Methuselah", which is 4,789 years old. To keep Methuselah from harm, this tree isn't labeled, as the other trees are. An older tree called Prometheus was killed shortly after it was discovered in 1964. This happened when a geologist searching for evidence of Ice Age glaciers was taking some core samples from several bristlecones. Just as he realized he had found a tree over 4,000 years old, his coring tool broke. Amazingly the U.S. Forest Service gave him permission to cut down the tree. Prometheus turned out to be 4,950 years old. It was a 300 year old tree when the pyramids were being built in Egypt. After people heard about this incident, the U.S. Forest Service tightened security around the bristlecones. The bristlecone pine is a multi-trunked tree, gnarled and twisted by the elements. Much of the pine is dead wood. Wind whipped sand and ice scour the dead wood smooth and beautiful. As a survival strategy much of the bark and tissue that conduct water dies back after the tree is damaged by fire, drought or storms.

This reduces the nutrients the tree has to supply to tissue and balances the result of the damage. The remaining parts are very healthy. A 10 inch strip of bark can sustain a large crown. This bark is red-brown in color and grooved with thick, irregular ridges. The crown of the bristlecone pine is rounded. The branches and needles look somewhat like a bottle brush because of the closely spaced needle whorls. The needles are deep yellow-green, with blunt ends. They come in bundles of 5, and are 1 to 1.5 inches in length. Because the needles can live twenty to thirty years, the tree doesn't need to expend much energy on adding new needles. This helps the tree survive through years of stress. The male flowers, or catkins are red-purple in color. The female cones are ovoid, or egg-shaped, and dark purple to brown when mature. Each cone is 2.5 to 3.75 inches long and take 2 years to mature. The tree is named for the long, hooked spine on the scales of the cones. Even cones from the oldest trees are able to produce a seed that will grow.

These ancient trees don't grow very tall, the tallest being 60 feet (18.3m), but usually less than that. The girth of the largest tree, the Patriarch , is 36 feet 8 inches (11.2m), but this tree is comparatively young at only 1,500 years. The average age is 1,000 years, with only some trees over 4,000 years. The trees put more energy into surviving then growing big. A bristlecone trunk may grow less than 0.01 of an inch in girth per year. The wood of the bristle cone is very dense, and trees can remain standing for thousands of years for hundreds of years after dying. They will finally fall over when the roots decay or are worn away by erosion. The Forest Service has very strict rules concerning taking any of the dead wood from the parks. Bristlecone pines can survive on the dolomite and alkaline layers of its habitat. Few competitive species can survive in this type of soil. Bristlecone pines grow with a lot of space between each tree.

They benefit from being off by themselves because few other plant species can survive in their harsh environment. Fires caused by lightning strikes don't spread far because the spacing of the trees and the lack of ground cover halts the spread flames. Bristlecone pines are fairly common in the regions where they grow. Only a few bristlecones in isolated, harsh environments have been able to grow to incredibly old ages. These old trees are now protected by law and guarded carefully by the US Forest Service. 2001 How One Man Accidentally Killed the Oldest Tree Ever | Smart News | Smithsonian SmartNews Keeping you current How One Man Accidentally Killed the Oldest Tree Ever In 1964, Donal Rusk Currey killed the oldest tree ever. It was a Bristlecone pine, and here's why they live so long smithsonian.com November 15, 2012 ​In 1964, Donal Rusk Currey killed the oldest tree ever. To this day, there has still never been an older tree discovered. The tree was a Great Basin bristlecone pine, and Currey didn’t meant to kill it.

It was an accident, and one he didn’t really understand the ramifications of until he started counting rings. Radiolab told Don Currey’s story in their Oops Episode: Basically, Currey got his tree corer stuck in the tree. So stuck that it wouldn’t come out. An unwitting park ranger helped him by cutting the tree down, to remove the instrument, and later Currey began to count the rings. Eventually, he realized that the tree he had just felled was almost 5,000 years old – the oldest tree ever recorded. The story is a sad one, but there’s a lot of science in there too. Great bristlecone pines are some of the longest living trees in the world. In the 1950s, this was a shock to people, who always thought that for trees, longevity correlated with size. Bristlecone pines max out at around 20 feet tall—they’re gnarly, little gnomes of trees, nothing like the majestic Redwoods of California.

Collectors Weekly explains how they live so long : Even if a large portion of a bristlecone is damaged by erosion or fire, small strips of living bark, which Schulman called “life lines,” are able to function and keep the tree alive. “Bristlecones will grow a thousand years or so, and then the bark will start dying off on one side,” says Tom Harlan, a researcher at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. “Therefore, the tree can’t support the branches directly above that area, and they die. Pretty soon you’re left with a small strip of bark, which is supporting all of the foliage. It might be only 2 inches wide, but the pine is still considered a growing, healthy tree.” It’s also worth noting that figuring out how old a tree is, isn’t that easy. Dendrochronology—the fancy word for tree-ring dating—didn’t come around until the 1890s. And it’s more complicated than just counting rings, since each ring doesn’t necessarily correspond to a year. The University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research explains : Ring-counting does not ensure the accurate dating of each individual ring.

Numerous studies illustrate how ring-counting leads to incorrect conclusions drawn from inaccurate dating. Dendrochronologists demand the assignment of a single calendar year to a single ring. Various techniques are used to crossdate wood samples to assure accurate dating. The tree Currey felled has been nicknamed the Prometheus tree. Collectors Weekly writes: The Prometheus tree’s felling made it doubly symbolic, as the myth of its namesake captures both the human hunger for knowledge and the unintended negative consequences that often result from this desire. Though members of the scientific community and press were outraged that the tree was killed, Currey’s mistake ultimately provided the impetus to establish Great Basin National Park to protect the bristlecones. The death of the Prometheus tree also helped to change our larger perception of trees as an infinitely replenishing resource. “It’s not going to happen again,” says Schoettle. “But it wasn’t something that I think they struggled with at the time, because it was just a tree, and the mindset was that trees were a renewable resource and they would grow back. And it didn’t seem like it was any particularly special tree.” Now, Currey almost certainly didn’t fell the oldest tree ever.

There are forests in the White Mountains, and elsewhere, where trees currently standing are probably far older than his Prometheus tree. We just don’t know about them. Update February 10, 2016: Since this article was written, an older tree was identified in the White Mountains, California. The tree is also a bristlecone pine and is thought to be over 5,000 years old . Like this article? Bristlecone Pines - Great Basin National Park (U.S. National Park Service) Bristlecone Pines ¦ The Prometheus Story ¦ Great Basin Bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva) are remarkable for their great age and their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. In fact, it seems one secret to their longevity is the harsh environment in which most bristlecone pines grow. Bristlecone pines in Great Basin National Park grow in isolated groves just below treeline. Conditions are harsh, with cold temperatures, a short growing season, and high winds. Bristlecone pines in these high-elevation environments grow very slowly, and in some years don't even add a ring of growth.

This slow growth makes their wood very dense and resistant to insects, fungi, rot, and erosion. Vegetation is very sparse, limiting the role of fire. Bristlecone pine seeds are occassionally cached by birds at lower elevations. Bristlecone pines grow more rapidly in more "favorable" environments at lower elevations. They do not achieve their legendary age or fascinating twisted shapes. While bristlecone pines are the longest-living tree, scientists debate what is truly the oldest living thing. The creosote bush that grows in the Mojave Desert may be older. The cresote achieves its age by "cloning" new bushes from its root system. Yet bristlecone pines surely deserve our respect for not only surviving harsh conditions, but thriving in harsh conditions. Identifying Bristlecone Pines Bristlecone pines are often confused with limber pines. They can be found growing together at the same elevations. They are affected by the same erosional processes, and may look very similar with dead and twisted wood exposed. A bristlecone's needles are about one inch long, and grow in packets of five. The needles completely surround the branches.

The tightly-bunched tufts of needles may extend back a foot or more along the branch, giving the branch the appearance of a bottle brush. The developing cones are a deep purple color, which helps to absorb heat, and mature after two years at which time they turn a brown color. The tree gets its name from the cones whose scales are each tipped with a claw-like bristle. Limber pine trees, on the other hand, have needles in packets of five that are 1 1/2 to 3 inches long, and grow only towards the ends of the branches. Also, the cones of the limber pine do not have bristles. Groves in Great Basin National Park Wheeler Peak Grove The Wheeler Peak bristlecone pine grove, the most accessible grove in the park, is located on the northeast side of Wheeler Peak. It is unusual in that it grows on a glacial moraine consisting of quartzite boulders. Most groves grow on limestone or dolomite. The northeastern exposure of the Wheeler Peak grove is also unusual as most other groves have a generally southern or western exposure. The Wheeler Peak grove is reached by a 1.5 mile (3 miles round trip) trail from Wheeler Peak Campground.

A short self-guided nature trail passes through a portion of the grove. During the summer, the park offers ranger-led interpretive walks in this grove. Check at the visitor center for a schedule. Mount Washington Grove The largest grove of bristlecone pines in the park is on Mt. Washington. Located in the west central portion of the park, access is difficult. No developed trails exist in the grove. Some sections of this grove have relatively tall (over 40 feet) bristlecone pines that resemble high-elevation spruce or limber pine more than the typical gnarled treeline bristlecone pines. Unlike the Wheeler Peak grove, the trees on Mt. Washington grow exclusively on limestone. In fact, nearby quartzite areas are notable for their lack of bristlecones. Eagle Peak Grove The third grove in the park is near Eagle Peak (Peak 10,842) on the ridge between the Snake Creek and Baker Creek drainages. The terrain is steep and access is difficult. These bristlecones also grow exclusively on limestone soils, while granitic soils in the area lack bristlecones. Please remember that everything in a national park is protected.

Some bristlecone pine wood on the ground may be thousands of years old and important scientifically. Please leave all down bristlecone pine wood in place. The Prometheus Story Bristlecone pines are said to be the oldest known living trees. They often grow in a twisted fashion at high altitudes. These trees also have sectored architecture, which means that sections of the tree are supported by big roots. These roots feed only the sections of tree directly above them. As one root dies off due to exposure through soil erosion, only the sector of tree above that root dies. It is common at high elevations to see bristlecone pines with only one or two living sectors, defined by a strip of bark. In the summer of 1964, a geographer by the name of Donald R. Currey was doing research on ice age glaciology in the moraines of Wheeler Peak. He was granted permission from the United States Forest Service to take core samples from numerous bristlecone pines growing in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak to try and age the glacial features these ancient trees grow on.

Currey was studying the variations in width of the rings of bristlecone pine trees, which were believed to be over 4,000 years old, to determine patterns of good and bad growing seasons in the past. Due to their old age, these trees act as climatic vaults, storing thousands of years of weather data within their rings. This method of research is valuable to the study of climate change. Currey found a tree in this grove he believed to be well over 4,000 years old. This tree was known by local mountaineers as Prometheus. There are several accounts of how Prometheus met its end. Some say Currey’s increment borer, the tool used to take core samples, broke off in the tree. Others say he did not know how to core such a large tree, or that the borer was too short. Yet others say Currey felt he needed a full cross section to better examine the rings of the tree. We may never know the true story of what happened to Prometheus, but we do know one thing for certain; Currey had permission from the Forest Service to have the tree cut down.

Counting the rings later revealed that Prometheus contained 4,862 growth rings. Due to the harsh conditions these trees grow in, it is likely that a growth ring did not form every year. Because of this, Prometheus was estimated at being 4,900 years old, the oldest known tree of its time. After the death of Prometheus, the oldest known living tree was a 4,847 year old bristlecone pine found in the White Mountains of California. It wasn’t until 2012 when another bristlecone from the same area proved to be 5,065 years old. There is a good chance there are older bristlecone pines that have not yet been dated. According to ancient Greek myths, Prometheus was an immortal who brought fire (symbolic of knowledge) to humans. Prometheus the bristlecone pine also imparted much knowledge to humans. Information gained by studying this significant tree added to the knowledge of carbon dating (which is valuable to archeologists and paleontologists) and climate data. Bristlecone pines are now protected on federal lands. The stump of Prometheus is all that remains of the ancient giant within the grove.

If you would like to travel through history by counting the rings of Prometheus, you can do so at the Great Basin National Park visitor center. Bristlecone pine videos, photos and facts - Pinus longaeva | ARKive Top Bristlecone pine biology Bristlecone pines have an extremely slow rate of growth. The summer months are very short-lived; new cones and twigs must be formed at this time and reserves stored for the long over-wintering phase. If trees are damaged by fire or drought, their living tissues will die back retaining only what can be sustained by the tree, thus much of the tree appears dead but it is still able to produce cones with viable seeds in the summer months (5) . Tree growth rings reveal the age of an individual tree but can also provide insights into past climates. Pines produce wide growth rings in generally good conditions, that is, sufficient moisture and good soil, and narrow growth rings form in poor conditions: little moisture and poor soil. By studying these growth rings, light can be shed on past climatic events (5) .

Because bristlecone pines are such old organisms, and because their timber persists for an incredibly long period after death (3) , the study of the wood of these ancient trees has revealed environmental conditions stretching back to almost 9,000 years ago (4) (5) . Top Bristlecone pine range Pinus longaeva is found in the mountains of California, Nevada and Utah; the oldest trees are located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California (5) . Top Bristlecone pine threats The bristlecone pine has an intrinsically low rate of reproduction and regeneration, and it is thought that under present climatic and environmental conditions the rate of regeneration may be insufficient to sustain its population (1) . In addition, an introduced fungal disease known as white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) is believed to affect some individuals (5) , while other insect and disease agents such as the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium spp.) are detrimental to this species’ survival.

Fires in lowland populations of bristlecone pine within mixed forests are also a danger, as the thin bark is only able to withstand low-severity fires (1) . Vandalism is a new threat that these ancients face and the location of ‘Methuselah’ is unmarked in order to protect its identity (5) . Climate change may potentially pose a threat to the bristlecone pine in the future, but its impacts are not yet certain. Top Bristlecone pine conservation Bristlecone pines are protected in a number of national parks, such as the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California and the Great Basin National Park in Nevada (3) (5) , where cutting or gathering wood is prohibited (3) . Some populations are within areas which have been protected purely for the monitoring and conservation of this ancient tree species (1) . Ex-situ conservation measures for the bristlecone pine include the collection of its seeds and pollen. Identification, propagating and planting of individuals resistant to white pine blister rust may be an appropriate regeneration method. More research into the effects of climate change on the diseases and insect pests affecting this species could also help with its long term conservation (1) .

The sheer age of these trees, which were seedlings at the time of the pharaohs, inspires awe and protection. For more information on the bristlecone pine and its conservation see: Global Trees Campaign: Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest - Sierra Nevada Geotourism MapGuide Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest Recommend This 137 Add to Trip Ideas “Methuselah,” which is more than 4,800 years old, is one of the oldest living trees on earth, and stands with its brethren in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest on the other side of California in Inyo County. "Methuselah" was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957 by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan, with an estimated germination date of 2832 BC. Methuselah is the oldest known living tree and non-clonal organism in the world—4,842 years old as of 2011. Several walking trails depart from the Schulman Grove Visitor Center that allow the public to explore these ancient, living marvels.

The Methuselah Loop trail is 4.5 miles long and climbs over 200 vertical feet and winds up and around a hillside of the ancient trees. Another longer trail takes you through another grove. Past the Shulman Grove, the road is dirt and leads to the Patriarch Grove. This ancient grove of trees sits at 2,900–3,000 m (9,500–9,800 ft) above sea level in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains within the Inyo National Forest. Directions: Take U.S. 395 to Big Pine, and turn onto State Route 168 (Westgard Pass). After 13 miles of paved road, take Forest Road 01, which is paved and marked as the route to the Bristlecones, and leads to the Shulman Grove of trees. The road to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is closed during the winter, but is typically open from May through November. Ancient Bristlecone Pines, California - American West Travelogue California's Ancient Bristlecone Pines, The Oldest Living Things by Joseph A.

Sprince - Photography by Gerald B. Allen Digg this In an obscure mountain range in eastern California the world's oldest living inhabitants, the bristlecone pines, have resided for millenia. Ancient bristlecone pine forests exist in several western mountain ranges but the oldest trees live in California's White Mountains. The oldest living inhabitant of this earth, as far as is known, is a bristlecone pine named "Methuselah", dated by it tree rings to be a fantastic 4,770 years old (in 2004). Paradoxically, these trees thrive only in the most brutal of environments. The White Mountains, which rise to over 14,000 feet, sit east of the great Sierra Nevada range. They are in the Sierra's rain shadow and are a virtual desert, one of the driest places on earth during the summer. The trees live in an area of rolling hills at the 10,000-11,000 foot level. This area is exposed, and always bitter, cold, and windy.

The most ancient of bristlecone pines live at the 11,000 foot level and only on the most exposed and rocky hillsides. Their limbs are for the most part dead and carved into the most fantastic shapes by eons of exposure to the elements. They require only a tiny amount of foliage and life sustaining bark for continued survival. Their height rarely exceeds twenty-five feet. Incredibly the seeds from these ancient trees have been shown to be viable. The tree shown at the top of the page is typical of the most ancient specimens. It is likely in excess of 3,000 years old and could even be the Methuselah tree. The Forest Service won't identify the actual Methuselah due to fear of vandalism. Note how the tree is composed mainly of exquisitely carved dead wood with only a very small amount of living foliage. The White Mountain area is lightly visited due to its remoteness, cold and windy weather, and absence of drinking water. In addition to the trees, it offers fantastic views of the snow-covered Sierras. (Left), A typical vista in the White Mountains almost resembles a lunar landscape.

Note how the younger bristlecone pine trees in the background appear visually as just normal and average trees. They assume their unusual shapes only upon attaining great age. In this elevated and hostile environment, some of the winter snowpack (which is usually not that much to begin with) remains even in mid-summer. This photo was taken on July 4, 1980. A fine web site, The Ancient Bristlecone Pine, offers additional information on this subject. The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is generally open from mid-May through the end of November, weather permitting. Winter storms close the White Mountain Road during winter months and into the spring. Please check with the Inyo National Forest's recorded information line at 760-873-2500 for current road closures, conditions and opening/closing dates for the visitor center or visit their website, Inyo National Forest's Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest , for more information. Make the most of your valuable time! Purchase the American West Travel Itinerary - Trip Planner by the American West Travelogue Editor, based on over 30 years of first-hand experiences. Customized and prepackaged plans available.

FREE CONSULTATION - Call (480) 270-4349 today! Recent Adds/Updates 6 of the Oldest Trees in the World | Mental Floss 6 of the Oldest Trees in the World Joe Burbank/MCT/Landov Like us on Facebook Roughly 3,500 years ago—right about the time the Ancient Phoenicians were hitting their stride—a tiny cypress tree, no bigger than a fist, sprouted in the swamplands of Central Florida. 3,500 years later, in 2012, that very same cypress burned to the ground. Known as “The Senator,” this majestic, 118-foot tall tree was one of the oldest organisms in the world. Over the course of its long life, it survived hurricanes, disease and logging sprees, serving as a landmark for Seminole Indians, a tourist attraction for curious Victorians, and a spiritual epicenter for pilgrims hoping to bask, literally, in the shade of history. Investigators later charged a 26-year-old woman with setting the fire . Here are some of the world’s oldest and most amazing trees that remain. 1.

Old Tjikko (Sweden) Karl Brodowsky /Wikimedia Commons The world’s oldest known living tree sprouted sometime during the last Ice Age, roughly 9,550 years ago. This 16-foot spruce in the Dalarna province of Sweden may look more like a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, but don’t be fooled: this little guy’s root system got started back when the British Isles were still connected to Europe by an ice bridge. According to Wired , geologist Leif Kullman, who discovered the tree, named it after his dead dog. 2. Methuselah (California) Oke /Wikimedia Commons Methuselah, a bristlecone pine tree from California’s White Mountains, is thought to be almost 5,000 years old—and the oldest non-clonal tree in the world. The exact location of the gnarled, twisted Methuselah is a Forest Service secret, for its protection (that might not be it above). In 1964, a slightly older tree by the name of Prometheus was accidentally felled by a scientist who didn’t realize the tree was as old as it was. 3.

Llangernyw (North Wales) Emgaol /Wikimedia Commons Llangernyw, a lush, 4,000-year-old yew tree, was inducted into a list of 50 Great British Trees by the UK Tree Council in 2002, which, as far as tree honors are concerned, is a pretty big deal. Llangernyw was planted in what is now a North Wales churchyard way back when the Egyptian Pyramids were still considered a new development. 4. Zoroastrian Sarv (Iran) The Zoroastrian Sarv, a tree in central Iran, is an Iranian National Monument. The 4,000-year-old cypress took root right about the time ancient people in Central Asia were inventing wheels with spokes, and over the course of its long life, witnessed the advent of modern human civilization. 5. Fitzroya Cupressoides (Chile) © Galen Rowell/CORBIS Fitzroya Cupressoides, a type of tall, skinny evergreen in the Andes Mountains, are some of the oldest trees in the world.

Known commonly as the Alerce, many of these soaring evergreens have been logged in the last two hundred years, but scientists have been tracking and protecting one specific tree, which is thought to be more than 3,600 years old. 6. The Tree of One Hundred Horses (Sicily) LuckyLisp /Wikimedia Commons The Tree of One Hundred Horses, this enormous chestnut near the Mount Etna volcano in Sicily, is thought to be between 2,000 and 4,000 years old. Its inimitable name comes from an old legend where 100 drenched knights and their sopping steeds sought refuge from a thunderstorm beneath the tree’s protective branches. It’s almost believable: This truly massive tree holds the world record for girth, clocking in at 190 feet in circumference—nearly the length of a hockey rink. This post originally appeared in 2012. Keepers of Prometheus: The World’s Oldest Tree | UANews Galleries A grove of Bristlecones keeps a silent vigil atop the White Mountains of eastern California.

“The idea of a single individual surviving for 5,000 years rooted in place is truly remarkable and I think strikes awe in most of us,” said UA dendrochronologist Chris Baisan, who first established the age of Prometheus, the oldest known tree. (Image: Rex Adams/LTRR) Keepers of Prometheus: The World’s Oldest Tree After a nearly 5,000-year vigil upon a Nevada mountaintop, an ancient tree now finds its home in the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. A member of the long-lived Bristlecone pine species, the tree called Prometheus is the oldest individual ever known to have lived. Its age was not accurately known until a few years ago. Shelley Littin Jan. 23, 2013 Resources for the Media UA dendrochronologist Rex Adams holds up the innermost piece of the roughly 5,000-year-old tree, Prometheus. (Image: Beatriz Verdugo/UANews) The 7-foot radius of Prometheus, the oldest individual organism ever known, adorns the wall of the UA Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

(Image: Beatriz Verdugo/UANews) A dendrochronologist extracts a thin core from a tree using a tool called a Swedish increment borer. The method leaves only a tiny hole in the tree's trunk. The tree's annual growth rings are visible as thin bands on the core. (Image: Daniel Griffin/LTRR) A Bristlecone pine in eastern California's White Mountains. (Image: Rex Adams/LTRR) On a craggy, windswept peak in a lonely Nevada wilderness stands a grove of old-growth trees. Gnarled and twisted, shaped by the weather and whirling winds into erratic growth forms, their roots have clung to the pebble-strewn mountainside for literally millennia. On the far side of the Earth, the great pyramids were erected in Egypt and Homer wrote his epic tales, the ancient Roman Empire rose and fell, and humans built the North American cities, roads and railways of today – all in the lifespan of these trees. This is not just any old-growth grove. These are members of the species Pinus longaeva, or Bristlecone pine, the world’s longest-living individual trees.

“There is an argument that unless there’s an extremely stressful period of time or they’re struck by lightning or killed by fire, there’s not a physiological reason for these trees to die,” said Rex Adams, senior research specialist at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research . The lab houses pieces of the oldest Bristlecone pine ever known to have lived, a tree called Prometheus after the Titan of Greek mythology. But how the pieces came there is a tragic tale. In the summers of 1963 and 1964, Donald Currey, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, climbed Wheeler Peak in Nevada’s Snake Range to where the Bristlecone pines stand in the cold mountain wind. Currey, a student in geography, wanted to find a minimum date for the formation of the local glacial features. He decided to determine the age of the trees, reasoning that the earliest they could have become established on the mountainside would have coincided with the recession of the glaciers. As a tree ages, it grows outward, forming a new ring around its trunk each year.

Its age can be determined by counting the annual growth rings from the living layer just below the bark all the way to the pith, the center of the tree from which the rings emanate. Dendrochronologists, who study tree rings, can sample most trees with skill and patience and a tool called a Swedish increment borer that harmlessly removes a slender core from the trunk, which shows the rings of the tree but does no lasting damage. Since the living part of the tree is the outer layer just below the bark, and all the wood inside is dead, the injury done by an increment borer to a living tree is very small, about equivalent to the skin prick of a human flu shot. Currey extracted cores from the Bristlecone trees, but found counting the sometimes paper-thin rings of the twisted and gnarly wood an impossible task. He decided only a complete cross-section would give him an accurate ring count. With permission from the U.S. Forest Service, Currey selected an especially old tree, dubbed WPN 114 for his study, and he cut it down.

Only later in his hotel room, counting the rings on the cross-sections of wood that his chainsaw had rendered, did Currey realize that the tree he had felled was more than 4,800 years old – older than any known living tree. “The tragedy of Prometheus is that it would have been possible with one or two cores to establish the age of the tree with great accuracy – much greater than was possible for Currey by having it cut down and trying to count its rings,” said Chris Baisan, a dendrochronologist at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Amidst public outcry in the wake of the event, Wes Ferguson, then a graduate student at the tree-ring laboratory, was tasked with returning to Wheeler Peak to see if he could find a living tree older than the one chopped down by Currey. He didn’t. And the purloined tree was left to lie on the mountainside for the scientists who followed, seeking the knowledge of centuries past contained in its rings. Ferguson collected some of the wood, and brought it back to the UA.

The age of the ancient one Wander down the concrete stairs to the basement on the northwest corner of the Math East building on the UA campus to a shut door bearing the somewhat ominous sign: “Please keep this door closed. The Fire Marshall requires that we do this!” Past the door you will find the cause of the fire marshall’s concern: Boxes full of wood, circular cross sections of tree trunks, whole logs and branches, boards and remnants of dead wood fill up rows of shelves – and oftentimes the aisles – from the sawdust-strewn floor to the dusty ceiling. On one wall, a 7-foot slab of wood is mounted with care: A cross section of the radius of the tree known as Prometheus. A second collection of wood from Prometheus came to the UA only a few years ago, after Currey’s passing. Among this collection was a piece containing the pith, the center of the tree. For the first time, a tree-ring scientist was able to date the wood to establish Prometheus’ age.

By overlapping the rings on the pith piece with a chronology of measured ring-widths from trees in the region provided to him by fellow UA dendrochronologist Matt Salzer and UA Regents' Professor Malcolm Hughes, Baisan established the age of the tree with great accuracy. “I had never seen a piece with the pith and was curious to see where it dated,” Baisan said. “The match was really unequivocal from the first test. A reasonable age estimate is right at 5,000 years – an estimate because of the time to grow to about 7 feet, the height from which the piece with the pith came, is subject only to a reasonable guess." Prometheus is not alone in its great age. Many of the other trees in the grove on Wheeler Peak also are estimated at near 5,000 years old, although none have been found that are as old as Prometheus. “The odds of by chance selecting the oldest individual of a species of hundreds of thousands, or millions, of individuals spread across the rugged and remote Great Basin terrain are simply not credible,” Baisan said. “I cannot believe that Prometheus was ever ‘the oldest’ Bristlecone pine.

As for finding an older individual,” he added, “this would be a difficult and thankless task for which there is no real research incentive.” Now the oldest publicly known individual, named Methuselah after the oldest person mentioned in the Bible, and known to be more than 4,700 years old, abides upon a slope of the White Mountains of eastern California. Its exact location is not advertised in an effort to protect the tree from a plight of tourists and plunderers. And Currey? “His career was OK,” Adams said. “To most people, he was just professor Currey. Nothing bad happened to him, except he died relatively young, and that’s the mysterious part.” The curse of the old trees “There’s this urban myth that goes with the Bristlecone,” Adams explained. “That handling the wood, you’re going to be cursed by the old trees.” From Edmund Schulman, the dendrochronologist who first established the great age of the Bristlecone pines and died himself at 49, to Currey, Ferguson and other Bristlecone pine researchers, many have died at an alarmingly young age.

In one incident, a 32-year-old Forest Service employee who returned with Currey and others to remove the chopped-up pieces of Prometheus from the mountainside suffered a fatal heart attack on the way down. As improbable as the myth may seem, its portents are dark enough to prevent some from ever touching the wood of the Bristlecones, especially that of Prometheus. But the myth hasn’t kept all contemporary dendrochronologists away from the old trees. “There are some folks now who are fiddling with the wood,” Adams said. “Some researchers here are working on climatic effects on Bristlecone.” And then there’s Adams himself. “I’ve handled a lot of old wood, and I’m sitting here now holding a piece that really is supposed to be the cursed piece.” He cradled the pith piece of Prometheus in one arm. “But then I am showing my age these days,” he added and laughed. “So maybe I shouldn’t be touching this.” He leaned over and gently lay down on the table the remnant of a tree that once weathered the storms of millennia atop lonely Wheeler Peak. Topics:

Question: The oldest known living tree in the world, a bristlecone pine, is situated in which US state?
Answer: California