Almost any person perceives events of centuries ago as a fascinating fairy tale, not believing in the reality of what happened thousands of years ago. The existence of the ancient world can be judged by the evidence found in different parts of the world. One of them is the oldest plants on Earth, some of which have successfully survived to the present day, having witnessed the birth and extinction of civilizations, having survived more than one historical era.
Modern representatives of ancient times
The oldest plants on Earth are algae discovered during excavations in China. Their approximate age, according to scientists, ranges from 580 to 635 million years. Great minds could identify him by the depth of the rock layers with the found remains of brown color, reminiscent of branches and plates.
Almost every continent has preserved the most ancient plants on Earth - silent witnesses of bygone eras. This is Antarctic moss, which is 5,500 years old, the plant Lomatia tasmanica, with an estimated age of 43,600 years, the grass of the Mediterranean is Posidonia ocean, numbering 100,000 years. By the way, it was back in those days when ancestors from Africa began to develop other lands.
The oldest plants on the planet are a poplar colony in the United States, Utah.
50 thousand genetically similar trees with a common root system make up a whole organism, which is constantly reproduced and in this way provides its own immortality. The approximate age of this society is more than 800,000 years.
Cryptomeria - the oldest cedar on the planet
On the highest mountain of the Japanese island of Yakushima, a huge cedar grows - cryptomeria, whose height reaches 25 meters, and the circumference is 16 meters. This ancient giant is 7000 years old. Some scientists claim that the age of a green handsome man is 2.5 times less. Tourists rarely visit such remote and remote places, allowing coniferous old-timers to humbly watch the passage of time.
And yet: what plant is now the oldest on our earth? Not so long ago, a team of specialists discovered a Canadian spruce growing in Sweden .
The slender and young-looking tree turned out to be a new shoot of the ancient progenitor, who grew up in the same place and was about 9550 years old. Today it is the oldest freestanding spruce on the planet. Nearby are other clones of trees, whose roots are from 5,000 to 9,000 years old.
Famous old-time pine
The fate of a pine tree named Prometheus dramatically cut short - an old-timer from non-cloned trees - cut down in the 60s of the last century with the light hand of a certain American student. After the death, the age of the tree was exactly established, amounting to 5000 years. Pine was a historic landmark of the Nevada National Park .
Another coniferous old-timer was discovered in California in the Inyo National Forest. In a study conducted in 1957, it was found that a pine appeared on the ground in 2832 BC, that is, at that time the age of the tree was 4789 years. It was named Methuselah in honor of one of the biblical characters who lived 969 years. Today, after the death of Prometheus, this pine is the oldest plant on Earth. Its location is reliably hidden among the rest of the trees, whose age also totals about 2000 years. The tree is carefully guarded to avoid attempts of vandalism.
The oldest plant on Earth (after the long-lived Methuselah) is cypress-shaped Fitzroy.
Her age was determined in 1993 by counting annual rings and amounted to 3622 years. It grows in a coastal reserve in southern Chile. In the Atacama desert of the same country, a yaret bush has been growing for more than 2000 years - a relative of modern parsley.
UK historic pride
In the courtyard of the parish church of the village of Llangernyu in Wales, one can admire a huge yew dating back 4000 years. He was able to live such a long life thanks to new shoots, growing even at the time of the death of the main trunk. In June 2002, during the celebration of the "golden anniversary" of Queen Elizabeth II, this historical monument was recognized as a national heritage of Great Britain.
Baobab - a bright representative of ancient plants
The most ancient plants on Earth are baobabs. A striking representative of this type of tree is a giant tree growing in Africa , the trunk of which consists of two parts with large cavities inside each. The diameter of the baobab is 10.6 meters with a trunk girth of 47 meters and a height of 22 meters.
The age of the tree, detected by
radiocarbon analysis, is 6,000 years; that is, the tree is older than the Egyptian pyramids. The giant hollow found inside of it has been successfully inhabited by many generations. There have been fires more than once. Able to accommodate 20-30 people inside, at different times it was used by people as a temple, bus stop, prison, storage for water and a public toilet. Its modern purpose is a cozy bar - pub. Being a tree so beloved and sought after, baobab continues to grow actively; in his crown lives a huge number of different birds.
Negligence of man in relation to nature
The relations “man - nature” are far from ideal, and the initiator of the negative for the most part is the first side, the irresponsible and conniving attitude dooming the oldest plants of the Earth to extinction. So, in order to build roads and organize fields, the Underground Forest located in South Africa was cold-blooded with chemicals. Representing a massive root system, scooping up nutrients and water deep underground, it was a guaranteed protection against possible forest fires.
In Florida, a unique cypress, which reached 3500 years of age, burned out of a man’s light hand.
One of the oldest trees in the world, it was named Senator in honor of Moses Overstreet, Senator of the Florida Legislative Assembly, who gave Seminole County land with cypress to create a natural park. Initially, the height of the Senator was equal to 50 meters; in 1925, in connection with a hurricane, a tree lost its top and decreased to 38 meters.