I love nature, but I really love the trees. I have always been fascinated by trees, and I want to know more about them. Dendrophilia literally means “love of trees.” In this blog, I am going to find out about each continent’s oldest trees.

What is the oldest tree in the world?

Photo Credits: Amazing World

According to an article by Live Science, the single oldest living tree is called Methuselah, which is a Great Basin bristle-cone pine, located in the White Mountains in California. This tree is 4,845 years old! However, in 2013, researchers made another discovery of the same kind of tree that is older! It is 5,062 years old! (Goldbaum, 2016)

I am going to organize my findings alphabetically, and I will visit every continent.

Africa’s Oldest Trees:

Photo Credits: Ancient Origins

According to Ancient Origins, 13 of Africa’s oldest Baobab trees have died in the past decade, and it appears that climate change is to blame. These trees are from 1100 to 2500 years old! Scientists believe that the warming temperatures have either killed these trees directly, or made them weaker, causing them to be more likely to develop diseases and it also makes them more likely to be damaged by other factors like wind and drought. More great information can be found here. (Ancient Origins, 2018)

According to atlasobscura.com, Sunland Baobab in Limpopo, South Africa, is one of the oldest trees in the world! It is 72 feet high and 155 foot around, it is the widest on the continent! An amazing fact about these trees is that after 1000 years, they naturally hollow out. The owners of this tree made a pub inside of it that can sit 15 people inside. As of May, 2019, the bar was still open, it is rundown and in rough shape, but it still stands! (Atlasobscura, 2019)

Antarctica’s Oldest Trees:

Photo Credits: Independent

Honestly, I was wondering if I would even find information on this. But, I did find some interesting information on Antarctica’s oldest tree! According to Aged Woods, at one point, Antarctica was habitable to everything. Even dinosaurs called it home. Trees used to live there, thriving, and their fossilized remains are there to prove it. Long ago, Antarctica used to be part of a landmass that was located farther north, so it had a much warmer climate. Trees at that time were common, and the trees that flourished were called Beech trees, Ginkgoes, and Ferns until ice began to form around 40 million years ago; 14 million ago, the continent was completely covered in ice! (Aged Wood, 2018)

A tree fossil was discovered in 2016 in Antarctica by a paleoecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The tree fossil he found is believed to be 280 million years old. The tree was turned to stone in a matter of weeks because the fungi in the wood mineralized. In that same area, there were other fossils that dated before and after the Permian Mass Extinction. Ash helped preserve these fossils. ” Antarctica did have plant life until about 14 million years ago and would have looked similar to what Siberia looks like today.” (Aged Wood, 2018)

Australia’s Oldest Trees:

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

In Tasmania, you will find the only known natural example of a colonial colony. It is found in Tasmania, and is known as Lomatia tasmanica, commonly known as King’s lomatia. This plant is unusual because all of the remaining plants are genetically identical. It is a triploid because it has three groups of chromosomes, so it is sterile. Reproduction only happens vegetatively. This means that when a branch falls off the tree, it grows roots, the new established plant is genetically identical to its parent. There is only one colony of the Lomatia tasmanica growing in the wild. “There are around 600 plants over an area 1.2 km in length.” (Wikipedia, 2019)

Asia’s Oldest Trees:

Photo Credit: Smithsonian

There are reports that near Jianchuan and Yongchuan clay mines, a fossilized forest was found. The forest seems to cover 2.7 million square feet, and it is the oldest known forest found in Asia! They are Lycopsid trees, and they do not look like modern trees at all. One may not even realize that it is a forest at all. “The large density as well as the small size of the trees could make Xinhang forest very similar to a sugarcane field, although the plants in Xinhang forest are distributed in patches.” More information on this tree forest can be found here. (Delaney, 2019)

Europe’s Oldest Trees:

Photo Credits: National Geographic

Europe’s oldest tree can be found growing in Greece. It is a Bosnian pine, and it is about 1,075 years old! The tree is named Adonis after the Greek God of beauty, youth and desire. This tree took root in A.D. 941 when the Vikings were still raiding along European coastlines. Europe is also home to several older trees, but they are yet to be examined and dated. For example, one tree is living in a churchyard in a village in Northern Whales. It is a Llangernyw Yew and is estimated to be at least 4000 years old! (Goldbaum, 2016)

A recent discovery was made of an old pine tree growing in southern Italy that has been scientifically dated to be 1230 years old, making it the oldest tree in Europe. (Ceurstemont, 2018)

North America’s Oldest Trees:

In the wetlands of North Carolina, you will find a forest of Bald Cypress trees that can be dated over 2000 years old! Scientists have estimated that one of the trees is at least 2,624 years old, making it the oldest trees in eastern North America! There is less than 1 percent of Bald Cypress trees left because they are valuable for timber and have been heavily logged. Although they are the oldest trees of eastern North America, they are also the oldest wetland tree species in the world! (Imster, 2019)

Ok, so now I want to know about the oldest trees nearer to me. I am located at Lake Seminole, and for those who don’t know, Lake Seminole is located on Georgia and Florida, but I live in Georgia.

Georgia’s Oldest Trees:

Georgia has a Champion Tree Program that is overseen by the Georgia Forestry Commission. “A champion tree is defined as the largest known tree of a particular species.” You can find a list of Georgia’s trees, click here. I want to focus on Seminole County.

Seminole County’s Oldest Tree:

Photo Credits: American Grove

The oldest living tree nearest to me is the Live Oak. The tree is located near Iron City, and could be more than 300 years old. According to the GFC (Georgia Forestry Commission), the tree is 89 foot tall, and has a crown spread of 147 feet. It is known as “Spooner Oak.” (GFC, 2019)(American Grove, 2019)

South America’s Oldest Trees:

South America’s oldest tree is located in the Andes Mountains. According to Aged Woods, the Platagonian Cypress is the oldest tree in South America, and it is 3600 years old. Since fossils of this tree have been found in Tasmania that are believed to be about 35 million years old That makes it the second oldest on Earth, following the Bristle-cone pine. A park was established to keep these trees protected. “Located in the Los Rios Region of Chile in the western part of Ranco Province and in the Alerce Costero National Park is South America’s elder statesman.” It is known as Lahuen, locally. It has survived numerous earthquakes, fires and logging efforts. It is roughly 13 feet wide, and 36 feet tall. (Aged Woods, 2017)

Colonial Colony:

According to Wikipedia, “A clonal colony or genet is a group of genetically identical individuals, such as plants, fungi, or bacteria, that have grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor.” Above ground, they appear as distinct individuals, but underground, they are interconnected and are all colonies of the same plant. (Wikipedia, 2019)

According to Wikipedia, the trees above are Pando and it is also known as the Trembling Giant. It is part of a massive underground root system. It is located Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in south-central Utah. These trees take up 106 acres, and the root system is estimated to be 80,000 years old! However, it is dying and the reasons are unsure. More information on these trees can be found here. (Wikipedia, 2019)

Discovering these old trees proves that trees can live up to climate change for centuries! “Analyzing its growth through so many years of shifting conditions can help scientists better understand how forests at large might respond to modern climate change. Studying multi-centennial trees is highly valuable to better predict the future impact of climate change on forest ecosystems.” More great information can be found here. (Ceurstemont, 2018)

Thanks for reading!

Sources:

Goldbaum, Katie (2016) What is the Oldest Living Tree in the World? https://www.livescience.com/29152-oldest-tree-in-world.html

Wikipedia (2019) Lomatia tasmanica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomatia_tasmanica

Wikipedia (2019) Colonial Colony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonal_colony

Ceurstemont, Sandrine (2018) Oldest European Found- And Its Having a Growth Spurt https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/05/oldest-tree-europe-italy-pine-climate-science/#close

Ancient Orgins (2018) 9 Oldest Trees in Africa, Some Over 2000 Years Old, Now Dead https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/9-oldest-trees-africa-some-over-2000-years-old-now-dead-0010262

Atlasobscura (2019) Sunland Baobab https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sunland-baobab

Aged Woods (2018) World’s Oldest Trees: The Trees of Antarctica https://www.agedwoods.com/world-oldest-trees-trees-antarctica/

Delaney, Jay (2019) Fossil Trees Reveal the Oldest Known Forest in Asia https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/fossil-trees-reveal-oldest-known-forest-asia-180972877/

Imster, Elanor (2019) The Oldest Known Tree in Eastern North America https://earthsky.org/earth/north-america-oldest-trees-bald-cypress

Georgia Forestry Commission (2019) Georgia’s Champion Tree Program http://www.gfc.state.ga.us/forest-management/champion-tree-program/

American Grove (2019) Live Oak http://thegrove.americangrove.org/profiles/posts/list/tag/live+oak#.XYjysC5KjIU

Aged Woods (2017) South America’s Oldest Tree https://www.agedwoods.com/south-americas-oldest-tree/