Kouta, Thanks very much for passing along the article and translanting the paragraph. I have run into the language issue before when researching Juniperus communis. I've seen reference to an article written in Russian in the early 1900's that mentions a 2000 year old individual in Latvia. The round number made me suspicious, and the age of the article made me doubt I could obtain a couple.
At most sites, the North American variety of Juniperus communis, depressa, has a less upright growth form than the common Eurasian variety, communis. However, at a few sites, var depressa does exhibit a tree like habit. I've only visited one such site, and the tallest individual I found was 12.5cm dbh x 7.4m tall. Jess 2009/11/14 Kouta Räsänen <[email protected]>: > Jess & Ed, > >> Mountains and another mountain range (Korkorums?) > > Maybe Karakoram (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakoram). > >> Let me know if you would like copies of the articles. > > Yes, that would be great! > > The references for the Juniperus communis ages. Here we meet the > language barriers: I believe there is nothing in English. I don't know > the original study, it was some decades ago, and the tree had the same > destiny as the oldest bristlecone pine. The tree is mentioned e.g. in > this article on dendrochronology: > > Matti Eronen: "Puulustot: ympäristömuutosten tietopankki". Tieteessä > tapahtuu, 6/2002, pp. 4-9. > > It is online here: > http://www.tieteessatapahtuu.fi/026/eronen.pdf > > A translation of the third paragraph of page 5 (page number on the > right): > > "The most long-lived tree occurring in Finland is common juniper > (Juniperus communis), which most often grows to a multistemmed shrub. > In Utsjoki some decades ago, a juniper has been found, from which > about 1070 year rings have been counted. However, the old juniper has > been cutted by such study and its growth has terminated so." > > The article says too, that in northern Sweden a scots pine has been > found, which was almost 1000 years old. Matti Eronen is a professor of > geology and paleontology in Helsinki University. I sent a question to > finnish dendrologists, if they know the original references. > > I think this example shows clearly, there have been a lot of study we > are not aware, and if we hear of such studies, we label them "not > confirmed", because we cannot read the original text and methods they > used. As English has become a global language, this mechanism leads to > a situation where so many of records are located in English-speaking > countries. Hopefully, such projects, as Jess and Ed explained, lead to > a better knowledge about what trees globally are able to achieve. > > Jess, how tall is the tallest Juniperus communis, you have found? > > - 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] -- 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]
