What's the Oldest Tree in the World?

The holder of this title is debated, but Earth's oldest tree is at least (at least!) 4,800 years old -- and may be much older. Learn about the contenders in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/oldest-tree-in-world.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The title of oldest tree
in the world is surprisingly enough up for grabs, since
about a majestically gnarled bristle cone pine in California has
held the designation, only to be usurped by an up

(00:24):
and comer discovered on a Swedish mountaintop, and not to
be outdone. A controversial fine in a Chilean forest has
tree aficionados wondering whether an ancient Cyprus could actually be hundreds, yes,
hundreds of years older than any known living tree in existence.
With the competition literally growing, Crowning the world's oldest tree

(00:45):
is much more complicated than one might think. Let's look
at the contenders. Before the Egyptians had even started constructing
the famed Pyramids of Giza, there was a tiny tree
putting down roots in the White Mountains of eastern California.
This tree, bristle cone pine, dubbed Methuselah, is still growing

(01:06):
in California's Great Basin and was once believed to be
the world's oldest tree. Tree ring data from a core
sample of its trunk estimates its age at four thousand,
eight hundred and fifty three years old. Another candidate is
a Patagonian cyprus that was found in Chile in two
known fondly as grand a Boilo, meaning great grandfather, This

(01:29):
particular tree, found growing in a ravine in Chile's Allers
Costeo National Park, is estimated at five thousand, four hundred
and eighty four years old, which is more than six
hundred years older than Methuselah. However, because researchers estimated the
tree's age based on a partial sample of the core,
there is some controversy surrounding the accuracy of the estimate.

(01:52):
But on a mountaintop in Sweden, a spruce tree has
kept its tenacious hold on life for nearly ten thousand year.
The spruce, which took root at the end of the
world's last ice age in about seven thousand, five hundred
and fifty two b c e, was discovered by scientists
surveying mountain tree species back in two thousand four. Its

(02:13):
age was confirmed by carbon dating in two thousand eight.
It was a surprise to researchers because science had previously
thought that this particular type of spruce had been introduced
to the area much more recently than that. The find
has researchers revising their timelines of when animals and people
immigrating across the land mass close to shrinking glaciers may

(02:34):
have introduced the spruces and other trees too. Fossilized acorns
found in the area may have been brought by humans
as they traveled. The discovery of the Mountain spruce is
not without controversy. However, The trees remarkable age is attributed
to its roots system, which has been alive for at
least four generations. The visible part of the tree, the trunk, branches, cones,

(02:58):
and needles, only lives for about six hundred years, so
when the trunk dies, a cloned stem takes root to
replace it. The ability to replace a new trunk from
the tree's root system has been key to which lengthy survival.
But is a long living clone growing from a generation
spanning root system still the same tree. It's a question

(03:20):
that scientists and record book publishers are still debating. One thing, though,
is certain. If you consider that all the world's oldest
trees have lived anywhere from five thousand to nearly ten
thousand years, they're each a living example of nature's ingenuity.
While even the shortest lived trees, like most fruit trees,

(03:42):
can survive for fifty years, some species, like pine trees,
grow so slowly that even at the age of forty,
they may only be six inches or about fifteen centimeters tall.
This slow and study wins the race strategy appears to
be a winning one at least when trees are young,
but changes as trees age. A study published in the

(04:04):
journal Nature reports that the older tree is the faster
it will grow. Previously prevailing thought was that tree growth
slowed with age, but now researchers know that the largest
and oldest trees can increase their wood, bark, and leaf
mass by hundred pounds about six every year. And unlike

(04:24):
most living creatures, whose cells change and break down each
day that passes, many trees don't have an age limit.
While trees can come to being cut down or to fire,
insect infestations, diseases, or natural occurrences like lightning, some trees
could technically live indefinitely and whatever their age. The world's

(04:45):
oldest trees are vital not only to the health of
their respective environments, but as a measure of climate change.
By studying the tree's core samples, Scientists are able to
see the impact of environmental changes on trees and their surrounding,
and the study of tree rings is called dendro chronology.
Using the width of a tree ring, which signifies a

(05:07):
tree's growth in a single year, scientists can verify whether
it was a year of drought resulting in a narrow ring,
or of excess moisture resulting in a wide ring. Identifying
similar bands across a range of trees helps scientists connect
data projections to a timeline and helps identify which trees
survive a changing climate. Today's episode is based on the

(05:33):
article what is the oldest tree in the World on
how stuff works dot com written by Laurie L. Dove.
Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio and partnership with
how stuff works dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang.
For more podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.