World's oldest trees
Thursday, 17 Apr 2008 13:26
Scientists say the world's oldest tree is in Sweden
Scientists claim that the world's oldest living tree is a 9,550-year-old spruce in the Dalarna province of Sweden.
The discovery challenges the previous belief that pine trees in North America were the oldest trees at 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
It also dismisses claims that the spruce tree is a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region.
"Our results have shown the complete opposite, that the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range," said Leif Kullman, professor of physical geography at Umea University.
Researchers made the discovery after studying four 'generations' of spruce remains, in the form of cones and wood, under the crown of a spruce in Dalarna's Fulu Mountain.
The remains showed trees of 375, 5,660, 9,000 and 9,550 years old with the same genetic makeup of the trees above them.
Scientists say the spruce tress have survived the harsh weather conditions due to their ability to push out another trunk as the other one died.
They claim that spruces could be the best species to give insights about climate change and that the discovery raises questions about where spruces originate from.
"My research indicates that spruces have spent winters in places west or south-west of Norway where the climate was not as harsh in order to later quickly spread northerly along the ice-free coastal strip," said Professor Kullman.
"In some way they have also successfully found their way to the Swedish mountains."