<story><title>World&apos;s oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border</title><url>https://sciencenorway.no/dna-forests-trees/worlds-oldest-tree-still-growing-near-the-norwegian-swedish-border/2037756</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vesinisa</author><text>That title is rather clickbaity for a &amp;quot;science&amp;quot; magazine. Crucially, the tree prominently featured in the large picture is not 10,000 years old and only its root system originates from that period:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Today Old Tjikko’s tree trunk is only five metres high. Although the spruce may have had many such trunks over the millennia, the tree&amp;#x27;s root system has survived all these years. No part of today’s living tree is as old as 9 500 years, but genetically, the tree is exactly the same individual as when it began to germinate.&lt;p&gt;Indeed if we allow equating the plant to the age and extent of its root system (genetically the same organism, although no part of the present plant is as old), I already found this other tree root system named &amp;quot;Pando&amp;quot; in Utah, USA, that is estimated to be up to 14,000 years old - making the Swedish spruce&amp;#x27;s claim to world&amp;#x27;s oldest dubious:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pando_(tree)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pando_(tree)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pando is also thought to be the largest and heaviest known single organism, covering 43 hectares and weighing 6,000 tons.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alkonaut</author><text>The cool thing about it and what does give it the 10k year feel is that it grows in a spot that was only low enough for trees to grow 10k years ago because the mountain has risen 100 meters since, and it couldn’t start growing there now.</text></comment>
<story><title>World&apos;s oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border</title><url>https://sciencenorway.no/dna-forests-trees/worlds-oldest-tree-still-growing-near-the-norwegian-swedish-border/2037756</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vesinisa</author><text>That title is rather clickbaity for a &amp;quot;science&amp;quot; magazine. Crucially, the tree prominently featured in the large picture is not 10,000 years old and only its root system originates from that period:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Today Old Tjikko’s tree trunk is only five metres high. Although the spruce may have had many such trunks over the millennia, the tree&amp;#x27;s root system has survived all these years. No part of today’s living tree is as old as 9 500 years, but genetically, the tree is exactly the same individual as when it began to germinate.&lt;p&gt;Indeed if we allow equating the plant to the age and extent of its root system (genetically the same organism, although no part of the present plant is as old), I already found this other tree root system named &amp;quot;Pando&amp;quot; in Utah, USA, that is estimated to be up to 14,000 years old - making the Swedish spruce&amp;#x27;s claim to world&amp;#x27;s oldest dubious:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pando_(tree)&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Pando_(tree)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pando is also thought to be the largest and heaviest known single organism, covering 43 hectares and weighing 6,000 tons.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>__alexs</author><text>What is a &amp;quot;tree&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;None of the leaves on Methuselah are 5000 years old, but we say that the tree is that old.&lt;p&gt;Kind of a Tree of Theseus situation going on.</text></comment>