"Methuselah", which is 4,789 years old.
Posted on 04/12/2008 10:35:19 AM PDT by blam
World’s oldest, 8,000 years old tree found in Sweden
April 10th, 2008 - 11:23 pm ICT
RIA Novosti
Stockholm, April 10 (RIA Novosti) Scientists in northern Sweden believe they have discovered the world’s oldest living tree dating back nearly 8,000 years, local media said Thursday. A Norway spruce, which was found growing at a height of 950 metres above sea level, is more than two metres (6.5 feet) tall and about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in width.
Shortly after the discovery, scientists sent samples from the tree to a laboratory in Miami, US, and were amazed to learn that the tree was 7,800 years old.
Lars Hedlund, a local councillor from Dalecarlia where the tree was found, told Swedish Radio that the tree was one of the first to grow following the end of the ice age.
The Norway spruce is one of the most common spruces, often used as Christmas trees.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the oldest living tree is 4,768 years old and is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine “Methuselah” located in the White Mountains of California. RIA Novosti
From my perspective, the world is only 47 and everything beyond that is heresay.
Oh boy, now the Forest Service, chambers of commerce, and visitors centers all throughout the Eastern High Sierra are going to have to change their thousands of brochures and signs including a big carved, wooden sign at the entrance to the little town of Big Pine that reads "Bristlecone Pines, Worlds Oldest Living Things."
In harsh environments trees grow really slowly.
It is really 63.25 years old.. Trust me, I know better because I am older :)
Swedish spruce may be world’s oldest living tree
Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:01am EDT
By Niklas Pollard
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Scientists have found a cluster of spruces in the mountains in western Sweden which, at an age of 8,000 years, may be the world’s oldest living trees.
The hardy Norway spruces were found perched high on a mountain side where they have remained safe from recent dangers such as logging, but exposed to the harsh weather conditions of the mountain range that separates Norway and Sweden.
Carbon dating of the trees carried out at a laboratory in Miami, Florida, showed the oldest of them first set root about 8,000 years ago, making it the world’s oldest known living tree, Umea University Professor Leif Kullman said.
California’s “Methuselah” tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, is often cited as the world’s oldest living tree with a recorded age of between 4,500 and 5,000 years.
Two other spruces, also found in the course of climate change studies in the Swedish county of Dalarna, were shown to be 4,800 and 5,500 years old.
“These were the first woods that grew after the Ice Age,” said Lars Hedlund, responsible for environmental surveys in the county of Dalarna and collaborator in climate studies there.
“That means that when you speak of climate change today, you can in these (trees) see pretty much every single climate change that has occurred.”
Although a single tree trunk can become at most about 600 years old, the spruces had survived by pushing out another trunk as soon as the old one died, Professor Kullman said.
Rising temperatures in the area in recent years had allowed the spruces to grow rapidly, making them easier to find in the rugged terrain, he added.
“For quite some time they have endured as bushes maybe 1/2 meter tall,” he said.
“But over the past few decades we have seen a much warmer climate, which has meant that they have popped up like mushrooms in the soil.”
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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the larch.
LMAO.
You need a one-second pause between "the" and "larch".
It’s hard to believe that that tiny little tree is older than some of those huge redwoods and sequoias.
Will it be gettin' any older?
I’ve seen that tree.
It is WINDY up there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So this guy is walking in the woods and hears voices arguing,
“Son of a birch” and “Son of a beech”.
He comes up to two trees that are arguing about what type a third tree is. He looks at the third tree as says, “I don’t know if it’s birch or beech, but it’s mother was a fine piece of ash”.
(ok. I’ll go away now)
Even the Bristlecone pine trees, about 40 air miles from Sequoia Nat'l Park, are 2,000 years older than the Redwoods or Sequoias.
I would love to trust you, but my generation doesn't trust anyone over 62.1 years old.
May I suggest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvQ2JF-glvw
Will this be the place of worship for algore and his followers?
“I would love to trust you, but my generation doesn’t trust anyone over 62.1 years old.”
Yes, but I am from TENNESSEE, so I know better :P
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Thanks Renfield and Blam. That MSNBC article said "western Sweden". ;') |
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A møøse bit my spruce.
Upon further scrutiny, the voice he heard was that of a woodpecker. A closer hearing revealed that the words he said were "The best piece of ash I ever had my pecker in."
Evoduntly...
Bzzt*@!#%&#!@#%#@!#%&#!@#%#@!#%&#!@#%#@!#%&#!@#%#...
Ah, that’s better.
Thanks.
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