Re: OT The world's oldesr tree.
- To: t*@xtra.co.nz
- Subject: Re: OT The world's oldesr tree.
- From: P* H*
- Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 09:29:27 -0700
- References: <3A3D9907.484C9BA5@xtra.co.nz>
Moira,
The world's oldest trees are not sequoia species, but another species, the
bristlecone pines in the White Mountains in the southern Sierra Nevada.
This is on the eastern slope near Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in
California. There is a whole "forest" of these trees and many of them are
well over 4,000 years old, based on core wood samples. Some of these trees
are merely gnarled, low trunks with a few twisted branches of leaves. The
exact recorded age of the oldest trees varies quite a bit, depending how
old your reference books are. The scientific data has been updated many
times, as new age-estimating technology is used.
I did a quick search and found this website. Pretty good info.
http://gorp.com/gorp/resource/us_national_forest/ca/see_iny1.htm
Paul Harrar
Nevada City, California
Sunset Zone 7
2,700 ft.
Tony & Moira Ryan wrote:
> Hi
> A query for you US folk who live on the west coast.
> One of my sons was perusing the Guiness book of records and came across
> mention of a Seqoia known as "Eternal God" said to be 7,000 years old.
> At the same time he discoverd a French website also giving records which
> mentioned the same tree but claimed as far as we can make out that it is
> 12,000 years old.
>
> This latter figure seems pretty unlikely to me as I have an the ice
> sheet would have still been covering the area 12,000 years ago.
>
> Anybody know the tree in question and particularly anything definite
> about its "vital statistics" ?
>
> Moira
> --
> Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
> Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
