ENTS, The Old-List seems to be quite North America centered...
Regarding old angiosperms, there are several examples in Europe, as already discussed in this forum. The oldest trees are impossible to ring count, but in Europe we have an advantage of historical accounts: "King XXX planted an oak for his daughter in the year YYY" and so on. Some examples in Germany: "Königslinde" (Tilia platyphyllos) stands since the year 980 in the kings yard in Lengenfeld. It has only one stem but the stem is hollow. Still older should be "Dorflinde in Schenklengsfeld", planted with a chapel 1130 years ago. According the wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichen), the oldest oak of Europe is located in Austria, it has been mentioned at least in the year 990; I have no other references for this tree. A horse chestnut in Italy "Il Castagno dei Cento Cavalli" is often mentioned to be the oldest tree in Europe. It is now divided into three trunks. E.g.: http://www.prolocosantalfio.it/ilcastagno100cavavalli.htm The site says: "The first scientific study of the gigantic horse chestnut was done by the botanist Filippo Parlatore from Palermo (1816-1877). He showed for the tree an probable age of 4000 years. More recently, Bruno Peyronal, docent of botany in university of Torino, after accurate studies done in 1982, has calculated an age of the famous chestnut 'over 2000 years'." - Kouta -- 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]
