Spell It: Meet Methuselah, Adonis, Pando... some of the oldest trees in the world
We learn that the oldest trees took root around 80,000 years ago, and are still standing
The sun rises, it sets. Clouds form, separate, whisk away in the wind. Leaves turn green, yellow, fall to the ground and turn to mulch. The passage of time trundles on, and witness to it all, are our world’s grand, old trees, which first began populating the Earth 385 million years ago.
Click start to play today’s Spell It, where you can spot a species of tree – the “baobab”.
As living historical records, trees are incredible organisms that can withstand generations of change and development.
According to the US-based science news website Live Science, until 2013, the oldest individual tree in the world was Methuselah, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (pinus longaeva) in the White Mountains of California – it is 4,845 years old. It lost its status when researchers found another tree from the same genus in the same region that was 5,062 years old.
In Europe, the oldest tree was crowned in 2016 – a 1,075-year-old Bosnian pine (pinus heldreichii) that grew in Greece. Named Adonis, after the Greek deity of beauty and youth, the tree has witnessed a great deal of the country’s history. It was even there in 941AD, when the Vikings were raiding European coastlines.
Researchers think there are even older trees around in Europe, like a yew tree (taxus baccata) in a churchyard of the Llangernyw village in North Wales. It’s estimated to be at least 4,000 years old, and believed to have taken root some time during Britain’s Bronze Age. But it has not been officially dated, so it is not called the continent’s oldest tree.
Although these trees are impressively ancient, they are technically not the oldest living organisms in the world. The title goes to clonal colonies – genetically identical trees connected by a single root system – that are far more ancient.
For instance, according to the US Forest Service, the Pando, or “trembling giant”, is a clonal colony comprising more than 40,000 individual quaking aspen (populus tremuloides) trees. Situated in Utah, US, the entire grove is considered to be a mind-boggling 80,000 years old.
Imagine being part of a clonal colony, growing with your brethren, and standing tall for centuries, only to find the rest of your family gone one day. In 2008, researchers discovered the world’s oldest individual from a clonal tree system – Old Tjikko is a 9,550-year-old Norway spruce tree, located in Fulufjallet Mountains in Sweden.
No matter their age, whether 1,000 or 10,000, majestic trees of the world stand the test of time, a reminder of things past, and a witness to things that are yet to occur.
What do you think of these ancient trees? Play today’s Spell It and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.