The oldest tree in the world (and the 7 runner-ups)

The world’s oldest timber have been rising when the Nice Pyramid of Giza was being constructed and have been already hundreds of years outdated when Julius Caesar got here to energy.

To find out a tree’s age, scientists acquire a core pattern from the plant’s base after which depend its rings. This relationship of tree rings is named dendrochronology and it may be a invaluable instrument for measuring tree age and learning environmental adjustments over time.

Nonetheless, resulting from rotting and the thickness of a tree’s trunk, it isn’t all the time attainable to get full cores. Usually tree ages are decided after it has died, however it’s attainable to get a core with out killing it with a specialist instrument that may extract a very slim pattern.

As well as, an infinitesimal share of outdated timber have been cored within the first place — based on a examine printed in Nature in 2015, Earth is residence to over 3 trillion timber.

Listed here are the longest-lived timber ever to be found on Earth.

1. Prometheus (a minimum of 4,900 years outdated when it was lower down)

black and white photo showing Donald Currey with Prometheus, a 4,900-year-old bristlecone pine.

Donald Currey on a limb of Prometheus, which was estimated to be 4,900 years outdated when it was lower down. (Picture credit score: San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers by way of Getty Photographs)

Prometheus, a Nice Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in Wheeler Peak, Nevada, lived shut to five,000 years earlier than it was lower down in 1964. It stays the longest-lived tree definitively documented.

Prometheus met its finish when geographer Donald R. Currey, who was learning ice age glaciology and had been granted permission to take core samples from pines within the park, lower it down (additionally with permission). Currey counted 4,862 rings and estimated the tree was greater than 4,900-years-old.The stump Currey used to depend the rings was not taken from the very backside of the tree, so the tree was definitely older than 4,862 years.

Associated: Do timber exist (scientifically talking)?

There are competing accounts as to why the tree was felled, based on the Nationwide Park Service. The most well-liked model is that Currey’s coring instrument acquired caught and he lower down the tree in consequence. Others recommend he lower down the tree to get a greater depend of its rings. At this time, a bit of the tree might be seen on the Nice Basin Customer Heart in Nevada on the Nice Basin Nationwide Park.

2. Methuselah (a minimum of 4,600 years outdated)

a bristlecone pine with twisted branches in California's White Mountains with a stormy sky behind

The placement of Methuselah in California’s White Mountains is a secret. (Picture credit score: hlsnow/Getty Photographs)

Since 1957, this bristlecone pine has held the title of the world’s oldest dwelling tree. Methuselah was found by famed tree researcher Edmund Schulman, a scientist on the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Analysis on the College of Arizona. He discovered Methuselah’s age after taking cores from many bristlecones within the space and counting the rings.

To guard Methuselah from vacationers, who would possibly injury the tree by touching it or strolling close to its roots, the U.S. Forest Service has lengthy saved Methuselah’s actual location a secret and doesn’t launch pictures of it. The tree is someplace alongside the 4.5-mile (7.2 kilometers) Methuselah Path within the White Mountains of Inyo Nationwide Forest in California.

3. Thriller tree (4,000 to 4,900 years outdated)

A twisted bristlecone pine on a barren hill with clouds in the background

The thriller tree (not pictured) is believed to have been recognized from a core pattern was additionally a bristlecone pine. (Picture credit score: Piriya Images/Getty Photographs)

Within the 2010s, rumors started to flow into that Schulman and his analysis group had unwittingly collected core samples from a tree older than Methuselah. Earlier than his loss of life in 2013, Tom Harlan, a scientist who labored with Schulman, mentioned he discovered a core pattern from one other bristlecone pine tree that was a minimum of 4,800 years outdated within the archives of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Analysis.

Nonetheless, Matthew Salzer, a analysis scientist on the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Analysis, has not been capable of finding that core. Salzer and a colleague used outdated notes to search out the tree they believed Harlan was speaking about, however they didn’t get a adequate pattern to confirm its age, based on the Washington Publish. Nonetheless, based mostly on their imperfect core, they mentioned the tree might be older than Methuselah however most likely not as outdated as Prometheus. This tree can be within the White Mountains of California, however its location past that’s secret.

4. Alerce Milenario (2,400 to five,400 years outdated)

The Alerce Milenario tree, a huge alerce tree, in a forested national park in Chile

Alerce Milenario in Chile is regarded as over 5,000 years outdated. (Picture credit score: Martin Bernetti/Getty Photographs)

The Alerce Milenario or Gran Abuelo (great-grandfather), in Chile’s Alerce Costero Nationwide Park, made headlines in 2022 when researchers used pc modeling to estimate its age at 5,484 years.

The trunk of the alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides), additionally known as a Patagonian cypress, is over 13 ft (4.3 meters) — so huge that researchers might get solely a partial core. On that core, they counted 2,400 tree rings and estimated the extra age utilizing modeling. In line with Science journal, the tree was estimated to be 5,484 years outdated.

One of these modeling shouldn’t be but absolutely accepted by the scientific group, however the core alone makes this tree indisputably one in all Earth’s oldest. Alerce Milenario’s location shouldn’t be a secret, and vacationers repeatedly go to and stroll round its root system. Jonathan Barichivich, an environmental scientist who led the current analysis into the tree, hoped the publicity this analysis generated would result in extra efforts to guard the tree.

5. Big sequoias (over 3,000 years outdated)

The base of General Sherman, a giant sequoia, with a plaque showing its name

Normal Sherman in California’s Sequoia Nationwide Park is regarded as over 3,000 years outdated. (Picture credit score: NPS)

Like alerces, California’s big sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are so giant that tree coring instruments typically cannot adequately measure their age whereas the timber are alive. Essentially the most correct estimates of outdated sequoia timber usually come primarily from timber which have been lower down or fell resulting from pure causes, Peter Brown, founding father of Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Analysis, which maintains a listing of the world’s oldest scientifically verified timber, advised Stay Science in an electronic mail.

4 big sequoias over 3,000 years outdated have been found, although none are nonetheless standing. The President, in California’s Sequoia Nationwide Park, is estimated to be over 3,200 years outdated.

The world’s largest tree, Normal Sherman — additionally positioned in Sequoia Nationwide Park — is estimated to be about 2,200 years outdated.

6. BLK 227 bald cypress (a minimum of 2,624 years outdated)

a huge bald cypress tree in a swamp with a heron in front of it

A bald cypress tree (Taxodium distichum) that was over 2,600 years outdated was recognized in 2019. (Picture credit score: earleliason/Getty Photographs)

In 2019, researchers introduced the discovery of a 2,624-year-old bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). This unnamed tree is the oldest identified dwelling tree in jap North America. It sits someplace alongside North Carolina’s Black River, a tributary of the Cape Worry River. As with many different outdated timber, its exact location has not been disclosed.

Researchers discovered different timber that have been over 2,000 years outdated in the identical area. They took core samples from solely a fraction of timber within the area — which means older bald cypress timber would possibly exist within the space.

7. CB-90-11 (a minimum of 2,435 years outdated)

Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine at sunset with mountains and a cloudy sky in the background

Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines aren’t thought to reside so long as their Nice Basin family. (Picture credit score: Russell Burden/Getty Photographs)

Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines (Pinus aristata) usually are not regarded as as long-lived as their Nice Basin family, however they’ll nonetheless obtain a really superior age. A examine printed in 1992 supplied proof that these timber can reside a minimum of 2,500 years. The group checked out timber on Black Mountain and Almagre Mountain in Colorado. They discovered 12 dwelling Rocky Mountain bristlecone pines that have been greater than 1,600 years outdated and 4 that have been greater than 2,100 years outdated. CB-90-11 was the oldest recognized, with a minimal age of two,435.

8. Unnamed Qilian juniper (2,230 years outdated)

close up showing the branches and berries of a juniper tree

A juniper tree in China was discovered to be 2,230 years outdated in 2009. (Picture credit score: oxygen/Getty Photographs)

In 2019, researchers recognized the oldest tree in China — a Qilian juniper (Juniperus przewalskii) in Delingha, Qinghai province, that was 2,230 years outdated in 2009. It was one in all 98 documented timber which are greater than 1,000 years outdated in China. The oldest timber in China are typically present in distant mountain areas the place they might have been extra protected in opposition to threats akin to logging and forest fires.

9. Unverified timber

The fortingall yew tree in a wooded area in Scotland

The Fortingall Yew in Scotland is alleged to be 9,000 years outdated. (Picture credit score: Duncan_Andison/Getty Photographs)

The world over, there are timber that native oral traditions declare are hundreds of years outdated. These embrace Sarv-e Abarkuh, a Persian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) in Iran mentioned to be greater than 4,500 years outdated, and the Nice Camphor of Takeo, a camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) in Japan that is mentioned to be greater than 3,000 years outdated.

There’s additionally the Llangernyw Yew, a standard yew tree (Taxus baccata) in North Wales mentioned to be as much as 5,000 years outdated, and the Fortingall Yew in Scotland, which some traditions place at as much as 9,000 years outdated. The ages of those timber and lots of others like them haven’t been scientifically verified, so their true ages are unknown.

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