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Methuselah is the oldest tree on our planet. A rough estimate of the time of germination of the seed from which this tree grew is 2831 BC (thus, as of 2022, the approximate age of the tree is 4852 years).

Scientifically speaking, this tree is the oldest living non-clonal organism on Earth known to science. The Methuselah tree is a specimen of the Pinus longaeva (Pinus longaeva).

Why is it important to mention the word "non-clonal" here? There are longer-lived plants that are clonal colonies. In most woody plants, clonal colonies are formed by broad roots that produce new shoots at regular intervals.

For example, the Pando poplar grove in the USA, consisting of 47000 Aspen poplar trees, has been growing for 80,000 years (read more in our article "The Pando tree is the heaviest living organism"). And the age of the underwater meadow of the sea plant Posidonia oceanica (commonly known as Neptune's grass) in the Mediterranean Sea is about 100,000 years old.

Pinus spinosa intermountain is common in North America. It grows high up in the mountains of Utah, Nevada, eastern California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. These trees have a gnarled and stunted-looking trunk, especially those trees that grow at high altitudes. However, the Pinus spinosa intermountain is characterized by a very high life expectancy – up to several millennia.

Methuselah pine (Methuselah) – the oldest tree in the world

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Methuselah pine (Methuselah) – the oldest tree in the world

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Methuselah pine (Methuselah) – the oldest tree in the world

flickr.com

The Methuselah tree grows at an altitude of 2900 to 3000 meters above sea level in the "Methuselah Grove" in the ancient Bristlecone pine forest in the Inyo National Forest, in eastern California (USA). The exact location of this tree in the grove is a secret kept by the US Forest Service. The exact location of the tree has not been released to prevent vandalism.

The spinous intermountain pine, which you saw in the photo above, is indeed located in the Methuselah grove, but it is unlikely that this is the sign of Methuselah. One thing is for sure – this tree looks fantastic!

Methuselah pine (Methuselah) – the oldest tree in the world

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Interesting facts about older trees

  • Methuselah pine was found in 1953 by botanist Edmund Shulman. In 1958, an article was published about this in National Geographic magazine. But 10 years later, an older tree of the same species was discovered.
  • In 1963, Donald Curry, a young graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discovered a tree on Wheeler Peak, Nevada, USA, that was approximately 4862 years old. He named this tree Prometheus, although it is also known as WPN-114. The designation WPN-114 means it was the 114th tree that Donald Curry surveyed in White Pine County, Nevada.

    The withered tree was cut in 1964 by US Forest Service personnel and divided into pieces, which were sent to various research sites, although its record age was not yet known at that time. The felled Prometheus was believed to have been an important factor in the movement to protect both the Pinus longaeva tree species and the fauna and flora of Wheeler Peak and its surrounding areas.

    Curry originally calculated that the tree was at least 4844 years old. A few years later, this number was increased to 4862 by Donald Graybill of the Tree Ring Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Although debate continues about the antiquity of this tree, many scientists believe that Prometheus may be even older – more than 5100 years.

  • For a long time, the Prometheus tree, cut down in 1964, and the oldest living Methuselah pine, to which this article is dedicated, were officially recognized as the oldest. An even older tree was found in the White Mountains of California. Measurements by Tom Harlan, a researcher at the University of Arizona Tree-Ring Research Laboratory, showed him to be 5062 years old as of 2010.

    However, Tom Harlan kept the sample of this tree a secret. Harlan passed away in 2013, and neither the tree nor the core he studied has been found, making it impossible to confirm the tree's age or existence.

 

In search of the oldest tree

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