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World's Oldest Tree To Be Cloned

Posted by timothy on from the to-make-fine-paper dept.

Pirogoeth writes "Scientists have taken seedlings from the world's oldest tree, a 4,768-year-old bristlecone pine named Methuselah, and plan on plan on altering them to make them clones of the ancient tree. Their goal is to study them to find the secret of their longevity and to see if cloned trees can survive in different climates."

1 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. As if cloning a plant is any kind of breakthrough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Memo to all y'all city folk out there in /. land: People have been cloning plants since time immemorial.

    You cut off a little piece of the branch, plop it in some potting soil, keep it wet, and in a coupla months, la voila: It's sprouted a root system!!!

    Just about 100% of all commercial plant offerings are clones [possibly grafted onto a foreign root system, which is itself likely a clone].