Thinking Citizen Blog — Methesulah (4853 years) — Oldest Known Non-Clonal Tree in the World
Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Methesulah (4853 years) —Oldest Known Non-Clonal Tree in the World
The super old tree with the most melodramatic history is the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree of Sri Lanka. Unlike the older Methusulah, the Jaya Maha Bodhi has a known location and is the object of veneration as it is the oldest living connection to the Buddha, because the tree was planted from a seed of the original Bodhi tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment. The Sri Maha is also the oldest tree planted by a human with a known planting date — 288 BC. It was planted by the daughter of Emperor Ashoka. Since then, it has been taken care of by Buddhist monks and dedicated kings. “Statues, water canals, golden fences, and walls have been built around the tree over the centuries, and many vows and offerings have been made by Buddhists at the foot of the sacred fig.” The most gruesome episode of its past was the Anurhadapura Massacre of 1985 when Tamil separatists killed 163 Sinhalese buddhists there. But now is time to tell the story of Methusaleh. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
EXACT LOCATION OF METHUSALEH IS KEPT SECRET BY THE US FOREST SERVICE.
1. Located at about 9500 feet above sea level.
2. In the Inyo Forest of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of eastern California.
3. Date seeded: 2853 BC
PRODUCED SAPLINGS AS RECENTLY AS 2003 — apparently life begins at 5000 years old more or less
1. “It had a 100% germination rate.” (Le Roy Johnson, former director of Institute of Tree Genetics in Placerville, California).
2. “That’s more than we get from most trees, let alone the oldest tree in the world.”
STRESS AND LONGEVITY — THE REVERSE OF THE HUMAN PATTERN
1. “In trees, unlike in humans, stress fosters longevity. Methuselah grows in rocky, alkaline, nutrient-poor soil and is buried under snow most of the year and blasted by sun and parched for water for the rest. “
2. “It has a growing season of just two months in the summer to produce and store food for the winter. Yet bristlecones have thrived in that spot for 11,000 years, tree ring analysis shows.”
3. “They retain their bottlebrush needles up to 40 years, four times as long as other pines, so they need fewer nutrients each year for new growth. Also, their living tissue is just a strip, in Methuselah’s case, one inch thick and six wide. Their trunks start dying around 1,000 years. What’s left, their crowns and the strip of vascular tissue, grows extremely slowly — one-hundredth of an inch in a good year, said Mr. Johnson, and often less. Giant sequoias, some of them 2,000 years old, grow an inch in diameter in a good year.”
NB: “Experts think the shrinking of bristlecones’ live tissue is a strategy to balance growth with available nutrients. But it may contribute to their longevity in another way as well: bristlecones that grow faster in lusher conditions are more susceptible to pathogens, said Tom Harlan, a dendrochronologist who is a consultant to the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research.”
FOOTNOTE — Photo of the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_trees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_(tree)
At Age 4,600-Plus, Methuselah Pine Tree Begets New Offspring (Published 2003)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuradhapura_massacre
A LINK TO THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED BY THEME:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to climate change or the environment. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to climate change that the rest of us may have missed. Your favorite chart or table perhaps…
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
