The planet's trees have seen plenty of history pass by their trunks. In fact, they began to populate Earth 385 million years ago, toward the end of the Devonian period. Considered living historical records, the organisms can withstand generations of development and change.
But which tree has been around the longest?
But which tree has been around the longest?
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00:01What's the oldest tree on Earth?
00:05The first trees appeared on Earth about 385 million years ago.
00:09Some types of trees live just a few decades,
00:12but others can live for hundreds or even thousands of years.
00:16But what's the oldest tree alive on Earth today?
00:19Until recently, that title belonged to a Great Basin bristlecone pine
00:24in California's White Mountains.
00:26Bristlecone pines grow very slowly in that cold, elevated landscape.
00:30They're known for their longevity,
00:32and this one, nicknamed Methuselah,
00:34was estimated to be 4,845 years old in 2013.
00:39But Methuselah was later displaced by an even older bristlecone pine,
00:43also in the White Mountains,
00:45which was found to be 5,062 years old.
00:48That means that it was beginning to grow
00:50around the time when humans in Africa
00:52were creating the earliest known examples of rock art.
00:56Another pine tree, a Bosnian pine in the mountains of Greece,
01:00is the oldest officially dated tree in Europe at 1,075 years old.
01:05Scientists named it Adonis after the Greek god of desire and beauty,
01:09and the tree took root in 941 A.D.,
01:13when the Vikings were still raiding settlements along the European coast.
01:17But all those are just the oldest individual trees.
01:22Clonal colonies, groups of trees that share the same genetic material
01:27and are connected by a single root system, are far older.
01:31In Utah's Fish Lake National Forest,
01:33one group of 40,000 quaking aspen known as the pando,
01:37or trembling giant, is thought to be 80,000 years old.
01:42Earth's oldest trees.
01:45Just one of life's little mysteries.