Oldest Tree in the World Found: It’s Called Great-Grandfather and is 5,484 years old
Methuselah, the former contender for the oldest tree in the world, is a 4,853-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. Image credit: Yen Chao
Great-Grandfather lives in the cool, humid environment of Alerce Costero National Park, and its fissures provide shelter for mosses, lichens and other plants.
According to Barichivich, the tree is threatened by visitors to the park being able to walk around its trunk, as well as droughts caused by global warming.
Alerce Milenario in all its might. Image credit: faoch
According to Chile’s forestry institute, logging plantations in the south of the country cover more than 2.3m hectares, as cellulose production is a major industry for the country.
While water-thirsty non-native pine and eucalyptus plantations make up 93% of this total area, over 780,000 hectares of native forest were lost in Chile between 1973 and 2011.
We can only hope that Great-Grandfather and its counterparts in the wilderness will survive human activity.
Great-Grandfather lives in the cool, humid environment of Alerce Costero National Park, and its fissures provide shelter for mosses, lichens and other plants.
According to Barichivich, the tree is threatened by visitors to the park being able to walk around its trunk, as well as droughts caused by global warming.
Alerce Milenario in all its might. Image credit: faoch
According to Chile’s forestry institute, logging plantations in the south of the country cover more than 2.3m hectares, as cellulose production is a major industry for the country.
While water-thirsty non-native pine and eucalyptus plantations make up 93% of this total area, over 780,000 hectares of native forest were lost in Chile between 1973 and 2011.
We can only hope that Great-Grandfather and its counterparts in the wilderness will survive human activity.
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19 December 2023
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