Which tree is the oldest on our planet?

Trees began to inhabit the Earth about 385 millionyears ago at the end of the devonian period. To this day, trees are considered living archives of changes occurring on our planet. Modern scientists over the years have wondered: which of the trees that have survived to our time is the oldest? Until 2013, the spinous intermountain pine (Pinus longaeva) growing in the White Mountains of California was considered the longest record holder. Her age is 4845 years. But, of course, this is not the limit for trees.

Later, scientists discovered in the sameCalifornia mountains new record holder - another pine, but already the age of 5062 years. The oldest tree growing on the territory of modern Europe is the 1075-year-old Pine Geldreyha (Pinus heldreichii), growing in Greece. Pine was named Adonis in honor of the Greek god of beauty and youth. Of course, in Europe there are probably trees that are much older than what grows in Greece. But scientists have yet to discover them and officially assess their age. Want to take a berry yew growing next to the chapel in North Wales. By average, his age is at least 4000 years.

Despite the fact that these single treesconsidered to be a kind of champions, they did not even come close to the truly ancient creatures. We are talking about clonal colonies, groups of genetically identical trees, united by a single root system. For example, a colony of 40,000 aspen-like poplars (Populus tremuloides), located in the national reserve of the US state of Utah, has been living on our planet for more than 80,000 years, by average.

If you take individual representatives of clonalcolonies, here the record belongs to the Norwegian fir, known as Old Tikko. According to scientists from the University of Umeå, the age of this tree growing in the mountains of Sweden is close to 9550 years. Spruce trees reproduce by replication, reproducing exact copies of themselves using the root system. This amazing ancient organism has cloned itself for at least 9500 years. Scientists also found another cluster of fir trees in the mountains of Sweden, whose age is around 8,000 years. Agree that, compared to these trees, the oldest animal in the world, which is the 183-year-old turtle, seems just a teenager.