
The World’s Oldest Tree Lives in Sweden - bifrost
https://swedesinthestates.com/the-worlds-oldest-tree-lives-in-sweden/
======
altec3
I'd always thought that the Methuselah Tree in California was the oldest
living tree. Apparently there's some disagreement, as Old Tjikko is a clonal
tree, meaning the trunks come and go but the roots stay living underneath [1].

So if you're counting non-clone trees, Methuselah is the oldest. If you're
counting clonal trees, some Quaking Aspens are believed to be between 80,000
and 1,000,000 years old [2].

[1] [https://allthatsinteresting.com/old-
tjikko](https://allthatsinteresting.com/old-tjikko)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_\(tree\))

~~~
samirillian
There's also Prometheus, which was older than Methusaleh but was cut down by
people looking for the old trees. [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_\(tree\))

~~~
mmanfrin
When I had ambitions for general interest blogging, I had an article kicking
around in my head on the dangers of being a superlative tree.

Prometheus was the oldest tree, killed by a core sample.

Tree of Ténéré, the most isolated tree in the world, felled by a drunk driver.
[1]

The Senator, the biggest cypress in the world was lit afire by an arsonist.
[2]

Kiidk'yaas, a rare golden spruce, was felled by someone _protesting logging_.
[3]

I also remember reading about the 2nd (largest, tallest, widest?) tree in the
world being lit alight by someone smoking meth in its branches, but I can't
find the source or name.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_\(tree\))

[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiidk%27yaas)

~~~
henrikschroder
If you visit Muir Woods north of SF, they refuse to tell you which tree is the
tallest in the park.

For good reason. People suck.

~~~
benj111
Well there's always a tallest tree in the forest, if the current tallest is
cut down, another becomes the tallest, so there's no particular gain or loss
over and above any other big tree.

~~~
usrusr
Which is exactly the point: the park does not want to lose any big old tree,
and singling out superlative individuals would make them targets in a way that
the collective isn't. People out for the attention of attacking a superlative
individual won't just fall back to any random tree.

------
tito
Surprised it's such a small tree, more like a Bonzai tree. Though as mentioned
in the article, "Big trees cannot get this old".

"The world’s oldest tree, Old Tjikko, is a 9,500-year-old Norwegian Spruce
tree that was discovered in 2004 by Professor Leif Kullman, and to this day
remains the world’s oldest tree."

~~~
tomerico
The trunk itself is estimated to be only a few hundred years old. When the
trunk dies but the root system is still alive, it may sprout a new trunk

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko)

------
tyfon
I often think that tidbits like this should be kept local or private. I can
imagine some jackass trying to chop this one down now, but it seems like it
might survive it as long as they don't kill the roots.

Still awesome stuff.

------
ALittleLight
I wonder what percentage of the world's trees have been carbon dated. I'd bet
that effectively 0% of the world's trees have been carbon dated and that there
remain older ones out there.

~~~
uoaei
~0% of sampled trees does not necessarily mean ~0% certainty that we have
found the oldest tree, since tree ages are correlated strongly with each other
in local neighborhoods. We know where to look to find "oldish" trees and then
narrow our search there. No need to sample trees from a new growth forest to
be reasonably certain how old they are.

~~~
ALittleLight
Suppose there's a thousand square kilometers of new growth forest. Is every
tree in that area new? What if there's a tree that substantially predates the
others and is now surrounded by new growth?

I'd agree that percentage tested isn't directly the same as likelihood we've
found the oldest, but I do think there's a strong correlation.

------
zeristor
No where near as old but there’s a 1450 - 1900 year old Oak tree in Denmark:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongeegen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongeegen)

Strangely there were three ancient oak trees close to each other until a few
decades back, the other two died recently.

------
yitchelle
12000 year old beech - [http://oltw.blogspot.com/2011/12/12000-year-old-
antarctic-be...](http://oltw.blogspot.com/2011/12/12000-year-old-antarctic-
beech.html)

------
zV62drdTw6CM
There is a research project [1] and book [2] by Rachel Sussman and Hans Ulrich
Obrist called »The Oldest Living Things«, which features this and many more
fascinating trees, moss, and other plants.

[1] [http://www.rachelsussman.com/oltw](http://www.rachelsussman.com/oltw)

[2] [http://www.oldestlivingthings.com/](http://www.oldestlivingthings.com/)

------
d--b
How do they use carbon 14 to date this? Isn’t it used to date dead things? And
if the trunk comes and goes, the bark is never really old, is it?

------
neuralzen
Would have been fun to see this tree in the film Midsommar, but it would have
been terrible if it was damaged somehow (film makers aren't always they best
at keeping nature intact, just look at the Maltese beach ecosystem which was
destroyed during the filming of the GoT Dothraki wedding scenes).

~~~
ripperdoc
Midsommar was recorded in Hungary in any case.

~~~
toxik
Is it any good, as a Swede I haven’t seen it. It’d be too funny seeing små
grodorna portrayed as demonic again (see also: Minority Report)

~~~
hajhatten
very beautifully filmed, but i couldn't finish it

------
mongol
Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko)

According to it, Old Tjikko is "the oldest known Norway spruce"

