RP178 The Oldest Trees in the World

 RP178 The Oldest Trees in the World

“The Big Tree is Nature's forest masterpiece, and so far as I know, the greatest of living things,” said the naturalist John Muir. Some of these forest masterpieces are not only big, but ancient. Our human lifespan is short by comparison.

One of the oldest trees in the world is the Llangernyw Yew, a huge, bushy yew tree that grows in a churchyard in Wales. It's hard to tell how old yew trees are, but this one is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. The churchyard is open to the public, and people are free to come in, walk around it, and touch it.

Another tree that is at least 4,000 years old is Sarv-e Abarqu, which grows in Yazd, Iran. It's a cypress tree, 25 meters high and 18 meters around. Its leaves form a giant green cone. It may be the oldest living thing in Asia.

Methuselah is over 4,840 years old and grows in the White Mountains of California. It was named after an ancient character in the Bible. Methuselah is a bristlecone pine—a type of relatively short, twisted tree with a trunk of many colors. Methuselah grows in a grove of other ancient bristlecone pines.

The oldest tree in the world, however, grows up north in Sweden. They call it Old Tjikko, and it's 9,550 years old! Old Tjikko is a Norway spruce and the smallest, spindliest tree on this list. It's also a clonal tree. That means that it is a clone of other trees. The part of a clonal tree that we can see may not be very old, but the roots below are ancient. This is true of Old Tjikko. Its trunk is fairly new, but the bushes and roots below are the oldest living tree on Earth!