Methuselah pine is the oldest tree in the world

Methuselah — the oldest tree on our planet. The approximate time of the seed germination from which this tree grew is 2831 BCE (thus, as of 2024, the approximate age of the tree is 4854 years).

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

Why is it important to mention the word “non-clonal” here? There are longer-lived plants that are clonal colonies. Most woody plants form clonal colonies through extensive roots that periodically produce new shoots.

For example, the Pando aspen grove in the USA, consisting of 47,000 Quaking Aspen trees, has been growing for 80,000 years (read more in our article “The Pando Tree — the heaviest living organism”). And the age of the underwater meadow of the marine plant Posidonia oceanica (commonly known as Neptune grass) in the Mediterranean Sea is about 100,000 years.

The Intermountain Bristlecone Pine is widespread in North America. It grows high in the mountains of Utah, Nevada, eastern California, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. These trees have gnarled and stunted trunks, especially those growing at high altitudes. However, the Intermountain Bristlecone Pine is characterized by a very long lifespan — up to several millennia.

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 Inyo National Forest, in eastern California (USA). The exact location of this tree in the grove is a secret protected by the U.S. Forest Service. The exact location of the tree is kept secret to prevent vandalism.

The Intermountain Bristlecone Pine you saw in the photo above is indeed located in the Methuselah Grove, but it is unlikely to be the famous Methuselah. One thing is certain — it looks fantastic!

 

Interesting facts about older trees

• The Methuselah Pine was discovered in 1953 by botanist Edmund Schulman. In 1958, an article about it was published in National Geographic magazine. But ten years later, an older tree of the same species was discovered.
• In 1963, Donald Currey, 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 that it was the 114th tree that Donald Currey studied in White Pine County, Nevada.

  The dead tree was cut down in 1964 by U.S. Forest Service personnel and divided into parts, which were sent to various places for research, although its record age was not yet known. It was believed that the felling of Prometheus became an important factor in the movement to protect both the Pinus longaeva species and the flora and fauna of Wheeler Peak and its surrounding areas.

  Initially, Currey estimated that the tree was at least 4844 years old. Several years later, this number was increased to 4862 by Donald Graybill from the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona. Although debates about the age of this tree continue, many scientists believe that Prometheus could be even older — more than 5100 years.

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

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

 

In search of the oldest tree