• Question: what is the oldest plant you know of ? how old is it ?

    Asked by to Izzy, Clem, Amelia on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      There are pine trees in California which are thought to be about 5000 years old – which is pretty old.

      It is not old compared to clonal trees though. Clonal trees grow by making new trees from their own roots (imagine a new baby you growing out of your leg?) – and so the age of the tree’s roots can be very very very old – even if the original parent tree died. Many different trees grow like this. There is a group of clonal Aspen trees in the USA, named ‘Pando’ which are thought to be over 80,000 years old!!! Thats a really really REALLY long time.
      Pando is also the largest organism on Earth – if you add up all of the trees that make up the clone it is over 6000 tonnes (thats 6000000000g, or 100000000 of me!)

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      As Isabel has said, Pando, the Aspen tree colony in America is the oldest tree thought to be around 80,000 years old.

      Another very old clone is the King’s Lomatia in Tasmania. This is probably the oldest living plant that isn’t a tree, and is thought to be around 43,600 years old. Like Pando, it too is a clone.

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