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Methuselah (pine tree)

Coordinates: 37°22′46″N 118°09′42″W / 37.3794°N 118.1618°W / 37.3794; -118.1618
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Methuselah
Forest of gnarled pine trees with sandy soil between them
The Methuselah Grove
Map
SpeciesGreat Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva)
LocationAncient Bristlecone Pine Forest, in the White Mountains, Inyo County, California
Coordinates37°22′46″N 118°09′42″W / 37.3794°N 118.1618°W / 37.3794; -118.1618
Date seededc. 2833 BC (age 4855–4856)
CustodianUnited States Forest Service

Methuselah is a 4,856-year-old[1] Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California.[2][3] It is recognized as the non-clonal tree with the greatest confirmed age in the world.[4] Its old age is a result of harsh weather and a lack of nutrients, which slow down the decaying process.[5] The tree's name refers to the biblical patriarch Methuselah, who is said to have reached 969 years of age before his death, thus becoming synonymous with longevity or old age in many European languages including English.[6][7]

Geography

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Methuselah is located between 2,900 and 3,000 m (9,500 and 9,800 ft) above sea level in the "Methuselah Grove" in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest within the Inyo National Forest. The United States Forest Service does not disclose its exact location, although the tree's location is now widely known and available on the internet following a high-profile leak in 2021 after photos of the exact tree were found in a National Geographic article as well as its appearance in a documentary.[8][9][10][11][12] The tree's location was withheld for years out of fear the tree would be damaged.

Status as oldest known tree

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The claim that Methuselah is the oldest known tree is controversial.

Methuselah was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957[13] by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan,[1] with an estimated germination date of 2833 BC.

Dendrochronologist Matthew Salzer of the University of Arizona has been unable to reproduce Schulman's age estimate, due to a missing core. Salzer's estimate is approximately 4,667 years old.[14]

After the Llangernyw Yew was assessed by David Bellamy as 4,000 to 5,000 years old[15] "using all available data", and the Fortingall Yew, with its former 16 to 17-meter girth,[16] assessed as 5,000 years old, Methuselah may have lost claim to the title of world's oldest non-cloning tree.[17] Though newer studies indicate a younger age between 2,000-3,000 years old.[18] The Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Old List does not list these trees.[19]

Other bristlecones

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Another bristlecone specimen, WPN-114, nicknamed "Prometheus", was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964, with an estimated germination date of 2880 BC. A dendrochronology, based on these trees and other bristlecone pine samples, extends back to about 9000 BC, albeit with a single gap of about 500 years.[20][3]

An older bristlecone pine was reportedly discovered by Tom Harlan in 2009, based on a sample core collected in 1957. According to Harlan, the tree was 5,062 years old and still living in 2010. Neither the tree nor the sample core could be located after Harlan's death in 2013.[4]

Non-bristlecones

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Although Methuselah is the oldest known non-clonal organism for which a reliable age has been established, the Alerce Milenario in Chile (5,484 years old),[21][22] Llangernyw Yew in Wales (4,000 – 5,000 years old) and especially the Fortingall Yew in Scotland (3,000 – 9,000 years old) have some age estimates exceeding that of Methuselah.[23][24][25][26][27]

Clonal organisms

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Other, longer-lived organisms are clonal colonies, such as a quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) colony named "Pando" in the Fish Lake National Forest in south-central Utah that has been estimated to be 80,000 years old, although precise estimates of clonal organisms such as this aspen colony are impossible with current technologies, and other scientific attempts to age Pando have estimated it may be much younger; the 11,700-year-old creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) colony, named "King Clone", in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California; and the 9,500-year-old Norway spruce (Picea abies) colony named "Old Tjikko" in Sweden.[28][29][30]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Pinus longaeva". Gymnosperm Database. March 15, 2007. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved 2015-01-04.
  2. ^ "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest". USFS. Archived from the original on June 3, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Natural History". USFS. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research OldList". Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  5. ^ "Methuselah, a Bristlecone Pine is Thought to be the Oldest Living Organism on Earth | USDA". www.usda.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-23.
  6. ^ "as old as Methuselah". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  7. ^ Molloy, J. (1911). "Methuselah". Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2017-11-12.
  8. ^ Kinkead, Gwen (June 17, 2003). "At Age 4,600-Plus, Methuselah Pine Tree Begets New Offspring". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
  9. ^ Methuselah Walk. U.S. Forest Service/Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association.
  10. ^ "Methuselah Tree - Famous Bristlecone Pines".
  11. ^ "YouTube". YouTube.[dead YouTube link]
  12. ^ "National Geographic, 1958 Mar" (PDF).
  13. ^ "Methuselah, a Bristlecone Pine is Thought to be the Oldest Living Organism on Earth". U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  14. ^ Ofgang, Erik (October 16, 2022). "Why mystery surrounds what may be Earth's oldest tree". The Washington Post.
  15. ^ "Llangernyw".
  16. ^ "European Yew 'Fortingall Yew' in the churchyard in Fortingall, Scotland, United Kingdom".
  17. ^ "Yew". Forestry and Land Scotland.
  18. ^ "Ancient trees: the UK's oldest trees - Ancient Tree Inventory". ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-23.
  19. ^ Brown, Peter M. "Old List". Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research.
  20. ^ Hall, Carl (1998-08-23). "Staying Alive". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2012-02-04. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  21. ^ Lara, Antonio; Villalba, Ricardo (1993). "A 3620-Year Temperature Record from Fitzroya cupressoides Tree Rings in Southern South America". Science. 260 (5111): 1104–1106. Bibcode:1993Sci...260.1104L. doi:10.1126/science.260.5111.1104. PMID 17806339. S2CID 46397540.
  22. ^ "Is the world's oldest tree growing in a ravine in Chile?".
  23. ^ "Llangernyw Yew".
  24. ^ "The Llangernyw Yew : The Oldest Tree in Wales and a Forgotten Poet". 13 May 2017.
  25. ^ "Yew".
  26. ^ "Fortingall".
  27. ^ "Fortingall Yew, Fortingall – Forests & Woodlands".
  28. ^ Vasek, Frank C. (Feb 1980). "Creosote Bush: Long-Lived Clones in the Mojave Desert". American Journal of Botany. 67 (2): 246–255. doi:10.2307/2442649. JSTOR 2442649.
  29. ^ "Larrea tridentata - King Clone". High Country News. Archived from the original on 2006-05-25. Retrieved 2010-09-11.
  30. ^ "World's Oldest Living clonal tree, 9550 years old, Discovered In Sweden". Science Daily. Archived from the original on 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2018-02-28.
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