WEBVTT - What's the Oldest Tree in the World? 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.920 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.520 brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. The title of oldest tree 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:16.360 in the world is surprisingly enough up for grabs, since 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:21.680 about a majestically gnarled bristle cone pine in California has 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.960 held the designation, only to be usurped by an up 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.240 and comer discovered on a Swedish mountaintop, and not to 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.640 be outdone. A controversial fine in a Chilean forest has 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:36.479 tree aficionados wondering whether an ancient Cyprus could actually be hundreds, yes, 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.000 hundreds of years older than any known living tree in existence. 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.800 With the competition literally growing, Crowning the world's oldest tree 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.160 is much more complicated than one might think. Let's look 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:54.480 at the contenders. Before the Egyptians had even started constructing 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:57.720 the famed Pyramids of Giza, there was a tiny tree 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.520 putting down roots in the White Mountains of eastern California. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:06.040 This tree, bristle cone pine, dubbed Methuselah, is still growing 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:08.920 in California's Great Basin and was once believed to be 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:12.200 the world's oldest tree. Tree ring data from a core 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.520 sample of its trunk estimates its age at four thousand, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:20.800 eight hundred and fifty three years old. Another candidate is 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.200 a Patagonian cyprus that was found in Chile in two 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:29.360 known fondly as grand a Boilo, meaning great grandfather, This 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:32.960 particular tree, found growing in a ravine in Chile's Allers 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:37.240 Costeo National Park, is estimated at five thousand, four hundred 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:39.640 and eighty four years old, which is more than six 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.440 hundred years older than Methuselah. However, because researchers estimated the 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.800 tree's age based on a partial sample of the core, 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.920 there is some controversy surrounding the accuracy of the estimate. 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.320 But on a mountaintop in Sweden, a spruce tree has 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.840 kept its tenacious hold on life for nearly ten thousand year. 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.080 The spruce, which took root at the end of the 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.440 world's last ice age in about seven thousand, five hundred 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:10.000 and fifty two b c e, was discovered by scientists 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:13.799 surveying mountain tree species back in two thousand four. Its 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.760 age was confirmed by carbon dating in two thousand eight. 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.400 It was a surprise to researchers because science had previously 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.280 thought that this particular type of spruce had been introduced 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.200 to the area much more recently than that. The find 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.280 has researchers revising their timelines of when animals and people 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.919 immigrating across the land mass close to shrinking glaciers may 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:39.760 have introduced the spruces and other trees too. Fossilized acorns 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.000 found in the area may have been brought by humans 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.280 as they traveled. The discovery of the Mountain spruce is 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.840 not without controversy. However, The trees remarkable age is attributed 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.640 to its roots system, which has been alive for at 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.320 least four generations. The visible part of the tree, the trunk, branches, cones, 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.960 and needles, only lives for about six hundred years, so 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.240 when the trunk dies, a cloned stem takes root to 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.520 replace it. The ability to replace a new trunk from 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.639 the tree's root system has been key to which lengthy survival. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.720 But is a long living clone growing from a generation 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.720 spanning root system still the same tree. It's a question 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:26.000 that scientists and record book publishers are still debating. One thing, though, 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:29.600 is certain. If you consider that all the world's oldest 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.760 trees have lived anywhere from five thousand to nearly ten 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:37.800 thousand years, they're each a living example of nature's ingenuity. 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.000 While even the shortest lived trees, like most fruit trees, 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:46.000 can survive for fifty years, some species, like pine trees, 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.920 grow so slowly that even at the age of forty, 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.520 they may only be six inches or about fifteen centimeters tall. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.520 This slow and study wins the race strategy appears to 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:58.880 be a winning one at least when trees are young, 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.960 but changes as trees age. A study published in the 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.480 journal Nature reports that the older tree is the faster 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.880 it will grow. Previously prevailing thought was that tree growth 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.160 slowed with age, but now researchers know that the largest 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.320 and oldest trees can increase their wood, bark, and leaf 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:24.480 mass by hundred pounds about six every year. And unlike 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.520 most living creatures, whose cells change and break down each 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:30.800 day that passes, many trees don't have an age limit. 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.680 While trees can come to being cut down or to fire, 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:40.200 insect infestations, diseases, or natural occurrences like lightning, some trees 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:45.960 could technically live indefinitely and whatever their age. The world's 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.080 oldest trees are vital not only to the health of 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:52.680 their respective environments, but as a measure of climate change. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.600 By studying the tree's core samples, Scientists are able to 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.919 see the impact of environmental changes on trees and their surrounding, 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.160 and the study of tree rings is called dendro chronology. 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.160 Using the width of a tree ring, which signifies a 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.880 tree's growth in a single year, scientists can verify whether 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.640 it was a year of drought resulting in a narrow ring, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.200 or of excess moisture resulting in a wide ring. Identifying 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.880 similar bands across a range of trees helps scientists connect 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.920 data projections to a timeline and helps identify which trees 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:33.839 survive a changing climate. Today's episode is based on the 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.240 article what is the oldest tree in the World on 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.680 how stuff works dot com written by Laurie L. Dove. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.680 Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio and partnership with 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.200 how stuff works dot com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.240 For more podcasts from My heart Radio, visit the heart 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.040 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:50.800 favorite shows.