The oldest trees on the planet

[Sawyer]

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/old-tree-gallery/all/1?npu=1&mbid=yhp

wow. Didn't realise trees could survive that long!

 

[robin wood]

Bristlecones are indeed amazing as is the story of how they became widley known by the public only after the oldest non clonal living thing on earth was felled by a student in 1964

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristlecone_pine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_R._Currey

On the colonial side of things in the UK we have elm colonies that are all genetically identical, cover entire woods and are many thousands of years old.

 

[R.Lewis]

That was a cool link, cheers! Very interesting, like the last one in Sweden, looks like nothing at all!

 

[Laughoutlouder]

Cool, nice one Sawyer.

 

[Bushcraftsman]

that is mental! 9550 years old! jesus...

 

[Wayland]

that is mental! 9550 years old! Jesus...

No, older than him...

 

[Tjurved]

Just a side note, I found this when I was out walking. Where that fallen pine stood a new pine grew up, was cut down and its stub rotted away. Fallen pines is very durable...

 

[Toddy]

The missed one of (if not the) the oldest trees in northern Europe, the Fortingal Yew.
Wikipedia is quoting a very disputed bit of research.
The forestry commission reckons that it's at least 5,000 years old.
The growth habit of the Yew means that tree ring dating isn't possible, and the other methods are contentious.
It is at least 2,000 and might be one of the first to root after the ice melted so potentially c9,000 years old.
If measured at the outermost circumferance then the extreme age is possible.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6UFC5F

Fascinating things

cheers,
M