Kouta, Yes the list seems to very North America centered. It generally lists only trees that have been cross-dated which have a single trunk, with a few exceptions. It draws heavily on the International Tree Ring Data Base. Most of the oldest chronologies are from North America, so they dominate the list. Historical accounts are a problem because there is a question if this is the same tree that was planted, or is it an offspring, or is it a coppiced trunk, or is it grown from a root sprout of the original tree....
It does not really provide much useful information even for tree species in the eastern North America. Neil Pederson created the Eastern Old-list drawing on much the same data but focusing on trees in eastern NA, many of which are shorter lived, and do not even make the original list. Even beyond that listing, the dendrochronological record tends to focus on longer lived specimens. I am trying to compile a listing for North America based upon cross-dated cores, scattered ring counts, etc. The degree of accuracy of these numbers is relatively poor, especially from really porous woods. The goal is not to provide a definitive listing given the inaccuracies, but to better understand the age potential for some of these species and the age structure of some of our forests. Even these ages with substantial errors is better than the lack of any information at all for the vast majority of tree species. A similar regional approach should be taken for Europe, Africa, etc. with the methodology noted so that the information is available and there is some way to judge the accuracy of the information. Ed Frank Check out my new Blog: http://nature-web-network.blogspot.com/ (and click on some of the ads) ----- Original Message ----- From: Kouta Räsänen To: ENTSTrees Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:49 AM Subject: [ENTS] Re: Angiosperms....are there many (or any) that can reach a 1,000 years of age with the original stem? ENTS, The Old-List seems to be quite North America centered... -- 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]
