![]() ![]() He refused to say which tree that was, and in 2013 he took that secret to his grave.Īs with that mystery tree, the exact location of Methuselah is kept secret by researchers, for good reason. Near Methuselah in the White Mountains, a researcher claimed to have found another bristlecone pine older than 5,000 years. Other “clonal” specimens - a colony of genetically identical aspens in Utah growing from a single underground parent root, for example - have existed for more than 10,000 years. Last month, there was news among dendrochronologists that researchers in Chile believe an ancient cypress there known as Gran Abuelo may be 5,400 years old, which, if confirmed, would beat Methuselah by about six centuries.īut for the time being, at least until Gran Abuelo’s age is verified, Methuselah remains the oldest, though even what counts as “oldest” is debatable. More importantly, my body had recently (and without warning) accelerated its aging process, and what better way to begin my fifth decade with some healthy perspective than by mingling with the planet’s most grizzled veterans?īut in setting my birthday resolution - to stand next to the oldest tree on the planet - I might have been a bit mistaken. For years I had wanted to visit this ancient tree, commune with it and ponder all the human history, the empires and egos it silently outlasted, as it eked out its meager, frigid existence on rock and soil that could barely sustain more flora than its neighboring bristlecone pines. Methuselah is the oldest known living organism on Earth. It was there, last October at roughly 10,000 feet elevation, that I celebrated my 40th birthday with Methuselah, a 4,853-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine tree. While every responsible citizen was fixated on election returns this week, my mind was high on a mountainside almost midway up California’s border with Nevada.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |