Ed,
I concur. The last sentence of the article states that the bristlecone pine is the oldest known individual tree. The article had several other subjects that I found interesting as well. I believe the box huckleberries are in Tuscarora State Forest. George From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Edward Frank Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 8:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [ENTS] Re: Oldest Living Tree George, I have seen articles about this spruce tree. To be fair I don't think a clonal colony should be considered to be the age of when the first portion of it was alive. The bristlecone pines are a single living object, a single trunk, not a clonal colony. the same can be said of the Pando quaking aspen colony, and the purported 50,000 year old mesquite colony. There are ridiculously old ages for clonal colonies of box huckleberries here in Pennsylvania. There are reports that they have found some bacteria preserved in amber 40,000,000 years old to still be viable. If you ant to go down that road, you could argue that all life dates from 3 billion years ago when it first sprang into existence because there has been a continuous unbroken string of life from that point forward to all things living today. There never was a point were things were dead and became alive again. So I will go with the bristlecone being the oldest living thing because it exists as a single entity. "Oh, I call myself a scientist. I wear a white coat and probe a monkey every now and then, but if I put monetary gain ahead of preserving nature...I couldn't live with myself." - Professor Hubert Farnsworth ----- Original Message ----- From: George Fieo <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 8:10 PM Subject: [ENTS] Oldest Living Tree ENTS, Attached is an article my brother sent me nearly a year ago. Researchers claim that a Norway spruce is the world's oldest living tree. The article also lists some of the world's largest and oldest trees including a quaking aspen clone estimated between 80,000 to 1,000,000 years old. George <BR --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
