Some of the world's oldest living trees

Time is short, and so are our lives. But these trees have gone back to as far as 4000 BC... I enjoyed this, hope you do too!

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


This Great Basin Bristlecone Pine nicknamed Methuselah has lived to be 4844 years old (verified).


Then there is the Llangernyw yew found in the Llangernyw village of Conwy County Bourough, North Whales. It is thought to be 4000-5000 years old. It took root sometime during the Bronze Age.


Then there is the Sisters Olive Trees of Noah. Allegedly, it dates back to 6000-6800 years ago. If that is true, then this is the world's oldest tree in existence.


Árbol del Tule holds the record for being the stoutest-trunked tree ever. At 1433-1600 years old, it has a circumference of ~120 ft (35 m) and a ~40 ft (12 m) diameter.

So far, I've only mentioned nonclonal trees. As with all long-lived plant and fungal species, no individual part of a clonal colony is alive (in the sense of active metabolism) for more than a very small fraction of the life of the entire clone. Some clonal colonies may be fully connected via their root systems, while most are not actually interconnected, but are genetically identical clones which populated an area through vegetative reproduction.


One such clonal colony of trees is Pando (Latin for "I spread"), originating from a single male Quaking Aspen in Utah. This colony is the world's most massive organism weighing in at 6,000,000 kg. The root system is as old as 80,000 years old (scientifically speaking, this is a "ballpark" answer, not the actual age). Its important to point out that we should take age predictions like this with a well-educated grain of salt.


This here ring of bushes in the Mohave Desert dates back to 11,700 years ago (by the best current scientific approximations).


And finally, there is the ancient Posidonia oceanica of the Mediterranean Sea. Based on the approximate age of the bed in which it resides, we are looking at a grass colony that has existed there for 12,000 to 200,000 years.

Bewwy interesting! Fanx