The Oldest Trees In The World

Most of this website is given over to wildlife, but flora – including trees – can be just as impressive and breath-taking as fauna, particularly the oldest trees in the world.

As a biological group, trees are some of the oldest living things on Earth, first evolving some 350 million years ago. It’s estimated there are over 3 trillion trees in the world, though human activity is impacting all areas of the natural world and deforestation is causing tree numbers to decline by billions each year.

If left unimpeded by humans, there are some tree species that are able to live – and continue growing – for many thousands of years. Some trees even live long into the tens of thousands of years, some of the longest living animals at ‘just’ 500 years.

How can you tell how old a tree is?

There are a number of different ways to tell how old a tree is – some more reliable than others.  The two main methods used on the old trees in the below list are:

Dendrochronology: A scientific method of dating the annual growth rings of a tree which is regarded as very accurate

Radiocarbon dating: Used for older trees and results in date ranges rather than specific ages

With this context in mind, below we present 11 of the oldest known tree specimens in the world:

The Tree of One Hundred Horses: 2,000-4,000 years old

Species: Chestnut (Castanea sativa)

Location: Sicily, Italy

The Tree of One Hundred Horses, is an enormous chestnut tree close to Sicily’s Mount Etna that’s believed to be anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 years old.

Its unusual name comes from a legend about the tree which tells of the time the Queen of Naples with her retinue of 100 knights and their horses sought shelter under the tree during a storm. This legend is quite believable given the girth of the tree and the circumference of its canopy, which help make the Hundred Horse Chestnut the largest as well as the oldest known chestnut tree.

The Senator: 3,500 years old

Species: Pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens)

Location: Florida, USA

The Senator was one of the oldest trees in the world, prior to being burned down in 2012 at an estimated age of 3,500 years. This majestic tree was killed by one Sarah Barnes and a friend who were smoking inside the tree and started a fire, destroying the tree from the inside out.

Before its demise The Senator had grown to 50 meters tall with a 10.7 meter circumference, until the top was damaged in 1925 by a hurricane, reducing it to 36 meters.

After sprouting in the Central Florida swamps millennia ago the tree survived disease, logging, and hurricanes, and became a local landmark for Seminole Indians, tourists, and pilgrims alike. Thankfully 10 trees were cloned from The Senator in 1990, and in 2014 one of these clones – The Phoenix was planted close to the site of The Senator.

Gran Abuelo: 3,646 years old

Species: Patagonian Cypress (Fitzroya cupressoides)

Location: Alerce Costero National Park, Chile

The Gran Abuelo (which means great grandfather in Spanish) stands proudly at over 60 meters tall in Chile’s Alerce Costero National Park. Patagonian Cypresses contain resins that mean they decompose slowly – making them a popular building material. It’s the oldest tree in an area that has been extensively logged, so it’s likely there were plenty of older trees in the region until the 19th century.

The tree’s age was reliably measured by researches using growth rings.

Sarv-e Abarkuh: 4,000-5000 years old

Species: Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)

Location: Abarkuh, Iran

As with many very old trees, it’s hard to know the exact age of Sarv-e Abarkuh, but this Iranian tree has been cultivated for centuries and could be anything up to 5,000 years old. Legend has it that the tree was planted by an Iranian prophet – Zoroaster, the third son of Noah (the Biblical ark builder).

The tree is now a national natural monument protected by Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and one of the most popular tourist sights in the city of Abarkuh.

Llangernyw Yew: 4,000-5000 years old

Species: Common Yew (Taxus baccata)

Location: Conwy, Wales

The Llangernyw Yew’s age now lives in the churchyard of the village church of St. Digain’s (though obviously predates the church!), and was inducted into the UK Tree Council‘s list of 50 Great British Trees in 2002.

Dating yew trees is particularly often difficult as the core often disintegrates, replaced with large offshoots growing from the central area of the tree. This particular tree was dated by British botanist David Bellamy, based on the many thousands of years of written records available.

Llangernyw Yew is linked with the Welsh mythological spirit of Angelystor (the “Recording Angel”) who visits each Halloween to prophesize which parishioners will die in the coming following year.

Methuselah: 4,850 years old

Species: Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens)

Location: California, USA

Methuselah was believed to be the oldest tree in the world after its discovery by Tom Harlan and Edmund Schulman in 1957. Subsequently, older trees have been discovered, but Methuselah still ranks as one of the very oldest. Appropriate, given it’s named after the Bible’s oldest figure, Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old.

The tree lives in California’s White Mountains, surrounded by other ancient trees. As with the tallest trees in America, the Forest Service keep the exact location a secret to limit the chances of vandalism.

In 2003 cuttings were taken by a tree farmer named Jared Milarch who managed to successfully clone the tree.

Prometheus: 4,862-4,900 years old

Species: Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva)

Location: Nevada, USA

Prometheus was one of the oldest trees on Earth until 1964 when a well-meaning geographer managed to kill it. Donald R. Currey got permission from the Forest Service to try and age the tree by taking a core sample but mistakenly cut down the entire tree.

After it was felled researchers counted 4,682 growth rings. Due to the harsh conditions in Wheeler Park, Nevada it’s thought there were likely many years the tree did not grow a ring, hence the ambiguity over its age.

A cross-section from Prometheus is now on public display at the Great Basin Visitor Center for anyone who wants to spend a few hours verifying the number of growth rings!

Unnamed Great Basin Bristlecone Pine: 5,071 years old

Species: Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva)

Location: California, USA

This unnamed Great Basin bristlecone pine is possibly the oldest known individual tree in the world (i.e. a tree that is not a clone or a colony). The uncertainty comes from the fact that the core taken of it by Edmund Shulman in the 1950s and apparently used to date the tree in 2010 cannot be found at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research.

Either way. There’s no doubt that this unnamed Great Basin Bristlecone Pine is an extremely old tree indeed!

Along with the eight individual trees listed above there are what’s known as clonal colony trees, which are able to live for tens of thousands of years.

What is a clonal colony?

A clonal colony (or ramet) is a group of genetically identical individuals, that have originated vegetatively rather than sexually from a single ancestor. grown in a given location, all originating vegetatively, not sexually, from a single ancestor. Above the ground the trees appear to be distinct individuals but are interconnected underground and all clones of the same tree.

The three trees below are examples of extremely old clonal colony trees.

Old Tjikko: 9,550 years old

Species: Norway Spruce (Picea abies)

Location: Dalarna province, Sweden

Old Tjikko is a 3 meter Norway spruce discovered in Sweden’s Fulufjället Mountains in 2008. Geologist Leif Kullman who found the tree claimed it was the world’s oldest tree with an estimated age of 10,000 years old (though this is younger than a couple of tree colonies mentioned below), and promptly named it after his dead dog.

Old Tjikko is actually a clone (rather than a colony or individual tree), regenerating new trunks and branches, whilst keeping much of its root system. This particular tree has been cloning itself for at least 9,550 years, and first sprouted during the last Ice Age when the British Isles were connected to Europe by an ice bridge.

Jurupa Oak: ~13,000 years old

Species: Palmer’s Oak (Quercus palmeri)

Location: California, USA

The Jurupa Oak in California is a clonal colony tree that first sprouted around 13,000 years ago, when humans were just beginning to farm and herd animals. The tree’s age was estimated by geologists based on the overall size of the colony and the growth rate of individual stems.

Palmer’s oaks tend to prefer damp, mountainous areas so it’s strange that such a successful old specimen is living in the Jurupa Mountains which are fairly low altitude and arid.

Pando: ~80,000 years old

Species: Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)

Location: Utah, USA

Pando is far and away the oldest tree in the world with an estimated age of 80,000 years. For context, humans were only just beginning to move into Asia 80,000 years ago, and only reached the Americas – where Pando lives – 15,000 years ago.

As with Jurupa, Pando is a clonal colony. Pando is made up of around 40,000 genetically identical individual quaking aspen trees that all share one huge underground root system. An epic way to end this list of ancient trees.

And that’s your lot for our round-up of the oldest trees in the world. Have you had the opportunity to see any of these ancient trees in real life? Please share your experiences in the comments section below!