A 1200 year old Pencil Pine (Athrotaxis cupressoides) I found up in the mountains in Tasmania. Shot with a GH2 and m.ZD 12mm Check out my blog if you'd like to read a little about these remarkable trees :smile: http://peopleandotherstrangecreatures.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/age-and-beauty-the-pencil-pine/ {}
Trees can be incredible. This yew is 10,000 years old: It's in a wee village in the Scottish highlands. Imagine our ancestors in 8000BC
Is that the 'Fortingall Yew? If so I hate to burst your bubble but recent research would suggest it's about 2000 years old - still mighty impressive but not quite 10,000
No way it's 10000 yes old - Bristlecone Pines in the US are said to be the oldest single living thing at about 5000 yrs old Bristlecone pine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I'd be damn careful with wikipedia and trees... Having just done a heap of searching I've found various Wikipedia articles to say at least 5 different trees are the oldest on the planet In the same article they say there's a clump of Huon Pines in Tasmania with individual specimens believed to be 3-4000yrs old, but then none of them are listed in the individual list, despite some of the listed specimens being as young as 1500... Wikipedia, gotta love it :smile:
My "big ol' tree" image from 2004 (check out people & benches in lower left!), and the wiki story - massive and old, but its age estimates cover a mighty big range! {} Arbol_del_Tule near Oaxaca MX Love your pine image though, cameras have come a long way since my '04 Kodak L443...
That is a rather big trunk! From what I can gather it gets hard to get a solid age for older trees because as the heart-wood dies it becomes impossibly to get an accurate core sample for growth-rings. Apparently when they aged the Huons' I mentioned, they used a sample of pollen from the sediment layers in a nearby lake - buggered if I know how that works... For those interested - the Pencil Pine I posted a picture of isn't actually a pine at all, it's more closely related to the sequoias of North America. The 'pine' part of the common name is just another example of early Europeans trying to create a point of reference to home.
