Old as the Hill’s

If you had to guess the age of the world's oldest living tree, what would you say?  Five hundred years?  One thousand?  Try 9,550.  The spruce was discovered in Sweden in the Dalarna province, along with a cluster of about 20 other spruces all more than 8,000 years old.  The tree's age's was determined by using carbon-14 dating.  It would have been a seedling about 7500 B.C.

Before the spruce was found in Sweden, the oldest living continuous standing tree believed to exist were determined to be about 5,000 years old.  Here are a few other tree facts:

  • Tree-rings research is called dendrochronology.
  • There is yellow pigment in leaves at all times of the years, it's just covered up by the green pigment in the summer months.
  • Trees under the sun will have leaves that turn shades of red, while trees that are more in the shade will have leaves that turn yellow.

October 2008 newsletter