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World's Oldest Tree To Be Cloned
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."
Not confirmed but maybe the Fortingall Yew may well be older. Well worth a visit as it is in a very beautiful part of the country...
The only Good System is a Sound System
Memo to all y'all city folk out there in
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].
Oh no, it's the invasion of the cloned trees!!!!!!! Run for your lives!!!!!!
Now I can attain immortality through the simple process of replacing my feeble human body with enduring tree parts. Mwahahahahahahahaha.
> or something thats even older. BUt this is probably the oldest actual tree.
IMO reckoning up the age of a creosote ring is a dubious comparison, due to its clonal propagation. An analogous argument would say that microbes that "reproduce" by splitting are billions of years old, which might be true in some sense but not very interesting for comparing the "age" of a microbe to the age of a tree.
> Although i thought they found one in england that was older?
I vaguely recall hearing about a much older plant as well, though I can never seem to find the story when the subject comes up.
Given human nature, there's probably a lot of nationalistic spin on who has the oldest plant, so I always take "the world's oldest plant" to mean "the oldest one that has a good PR firm in my culture".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
In 1989, a vandal used a strong poison and nearly killed the Treaty Oak, a 500-year-old Live Oak said to be the place where Stephen F. Austin signed a treaty with the local Native American tribes. Heroic efforts (funded by H. Ross Perot) went into saving the tree, but nobody knew if they would be successful.
To preserve the tree's legacy, it was "cloned" -- several still-living branches were rooted just as the parent poster described. One of these trees is now growing next to the original. It's clearly an exact genetic duplicate, and if that's not a clone, I don't now what is.
I agree with the parent poster -- what's the big deal? Why can't they just cut off a branch of the Methuselah tree and root it?
By the way, the story of the Treaty Oak has a happy ending. Despite fears that it would only be good for commemorative pen sets, the tree made a comeback, and started bearing acorns again in 1997 -- 8 years after the attack. Seedlings are now available, for "just" $125 bucks.
The poisoner, on the other hand, likely had a bit rougher time -- 9 years in a Texas state prison. No word on the fate of his acorns...
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
a quick google came up with a 43,000 year old plant (Tasmanian native holly), which has already been cloned in order to save it.
http://forests.org/archive/spacific/ausoldpl.htm