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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00:00What'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, but others can live for hundreds or even thousands
00:15of years.
00:16But what's the oldest tree alive on Earth today?
00:19Until recently, that title belonged to a great basin bristlecone pine in California's White
00:25Mountains.
00:26Bristlecone pines grow very slowly in that cold, elevated landscape.
00:30They're known for their longevity, and this one, nicknamed Methuselah, was estimated to
00:34be 4,845 years old in 2013.
00:40But Methuselah was later displaced by an even older bristlecone pine, also in the White
00:44Mountains, which was found to be 5,062 years old.
00:49That means that it was beginning to grow around the time when humans in Africa were creating
00:53the earliest known examples of rock art.
00:57Another pine tree, a Bosnian pine, in the mountains of Greece, is the oldest officially
01:01dated tree in Europe at 1,075 years old.
01:06Scientists named it Adonis, after the Greek god of desire and beauty, and the tree took
01:10root in 941 A.D., when the Vikings were still raiding settlements along the European coast.
01:18But all those are just the oldest individual trees.
01:23In colonial colonies, groups of trees that share the same genetic material and are connected
01:27by a single root system are far older.
01:31In Utah's Fish Lake National Forest, one group of 40,000 quaking aspen, known as the
01:36pando, or trembling giant, is thought to be 80,000 years old.
01:44Earth's oldest trees, just one of life's little mysteries.