So where is the oldest tallest Etc......? (1 Viewer)

Tim Allwood said:

What are the highly endangered smallish trees native to the mid/high Andes (the World's highest forest), up to 5100 meters and home to some of South America's rarest birds, including Ash-Breasted Tit-Tyrant, Royal Cinclodes, Cochabamba Mountain-Finch and the stunning Giant Conebill?

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satrow said:

What is the current concensus on the age of the Huon Pine(s) in Tasmania, Michael?

Andy.

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Tim Allwood said:

What is unusual about the St Helena Olive?

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Tim Allwood said:

and what are Moon trees?

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Steve said:

So where is the oldest, tallest Etc......?

You forgot "largest" tree, which arguably is the General Sherman tree (formerly known as the "Karl Marx tree") in Sequoia National Park, California. The Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is a different species from the Coastal redwood (Sequoiadendron sempervirens)

The General Sherman tree: height 83.6 m, dbh 825 cm, crown spread 33 m, located in Sequoia National Park, CA. This tree also has the largest known stem volume, 1473.4 m3.

Of course, for many of these claims there are complications, as it's hard to agree on what defines a "single organism." Apparently there are species of banyan trees (Ficus) that form clumps that sprawl over several acres. Are these one organism, or many? Similarly for age, there are species such as the Creosote bush that lives in the Mojave Desert in California, where there is extensive reproduction by cloning from the root crown. Some argue that these clone colonies, which span generations, constitute a single organism and hence qualify as the "oldest" living things.

Read on:

"The earth's oldest living organism may be the scraggly creosote bush, according to an article by Janet White which appeared in the November 11 issue of the U.C. Clip Sheet, a weekly newspaper published by the University of California. Writes White'; 'University of California botanist Frank Vasek has shown that creosote bushes growing in circular clusters are direct offshoots or 'clones' of a single individual. Some may be more than 10,000 years old, twice the age of the fabled bristlecone pine and three times that of the massive redwood trees, previously thought to be the world's oldest living things.

A scrawny plant that appears to suffer a slow starvation on the desert floor, the creosote is, in fact, a champion of survival according to Vasek's findings published in the 'American Journal of Botany.'

'The oldest we found, dubbed King Clone, is 11,700 years old by our estimates,' Vasek said. ' We believe it was one of the first life forms to colonize the Mojave Desert when the last glacier receded, and has been a continuous resident there ever since.'

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Colin said:

The oldest and tallest in Britain, in Scotland ought to worth a visit when I do my next Scottish Birding trip. I assume it is easy enough to find them, or are they on private land and out of view? Does anyone know?

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Doug Greenberg said:

Steve said:

So where is the oldest, tallest Etc......?

You forgot "largest" tree .....
The General Sherman tree: height 83.6 m, dbh 825 cm, crown spread 33 m, located in Sequoia National Park, CA. This tree also has the largest known stem volume, 1473.4 m3.

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Hi Doug,

You missed post #3

Of the Creosote Bushes etc - same as for the Huon Pine that Andy (Satrow) asked about - they're groups of genetically identical plants, not an individual. To my mind, they've no better claim than say, a colony of aphids reproducing by parthenogenesis. Using their arguments, the largest single plant in the world is actually the sugar cane cultivar 'CP 89-2143', vegetatively reproduced and grown on millions of hectares around the world . . . reductio ad absurdam its true, but it is no different than the Creosote Bush claims

Michael

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