Methuselah
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Methuselah (tree)
For the 750 year-old Methuselah's Oak tree, see Hampton Court Park.
Methuselah is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California.[1][2] Its age of 4843–4844 years[a] makes it the world's oldest known living non-clonal organism. The ancient tree is named after Methuselah, a Biblical figure having the longest mentioned lifespan in the Bible of 969 years.
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Geography
The tree grows at 2,900–3,000 m (9,500–9,800 ft) above sea level in the "Methuselah Grove" in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest within the Inyo National Forest. Methuselah's exact location is undisclosed as a protection against vandalism.[2][3]
Status as oldest known tree
"Methuselah" was 4,789 years old when sampled (likely in 1957) by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan,[4] with an estimated germination date of 2832 BC.[citation needed] Methuselah is the oldest known living tree and non-clonal organism in the world—4843–4844 years old[a] as of 2012.[5][4]
Other ancients
Bristlecones
An older bristlecone specimen, WPN-114 and nicknamed "Prometheus", was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964, with an estimated germination date of 2880 BC. Another bristlecone tree, approximately 4,600 years old, is still living. A dendrochronology, based on these trees and other bristlecone pine samples, extends back to about 9000 BC, albeit with a single gap of about 500 years.[6][2]
Clonal organisms
Other, longer-lived discoveries are clonal colony organisms: such as the 80,000-year-old Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) clonal colony named "Pando" in the Fish Lake National Forest in south-central Utah; 11,700-year- old Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) clonal colony, named "King Clone", in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California; and the 9,500-year-old Norway spruce (Picea abies) clonal colony named "Old Tjikko" in Sweden.[7][8][9]
See also
Notes
References
- ^ Inyo N.F.-Bristlecone Forest.accessed 8/30/2010
- ^ a b c NFS: Bristlecone Natural History.accessed 8/30/2010
- ^ Methuselah Walk. U.S. Forest Service/Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association.
- ^ a b c "Pinus longaeva". Gymnosperm Database. March 15, 2007. http://www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_longaeva.php. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ^ Info and clips from documentary film
- ^ Hall, Carl (1998-08-23). "Staying Alive". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/08/23/SC72173.DTL.
- ^ Creosote Bush: Long-Lived Clones in the Mojave Desert, Frank C. Vasek, American Journal of Botany, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Feb., 1980), pp. 246-255
- ^ http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=11165 Larrea tridentata - King Clone
- ^ Science Daily: World's Oldest Living clonal tree, 9550 years old, Discovered In Sweden
Coordinates: 37°23′07″N 118°10′38″W / 37.38528°N 118.17722°W
External links
- www.fs.usda.gov — Inyo National Forest official Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest site
- www.fs.usda.gov — Inyo National Forest: The Natural History of the Bristlecone Pines
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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