'Dinosaur trees': firefighters save endangered Wollemi pines from NSW bushfires

The Guardian ^ | Wed 15 Jan 2020 08.55 GMT | Adam Morton

[Fred Nerks]

They survived the recent bushfires because of where they were growing, protected, in a canyon; just as they survived the world-wide catastrophe which wiped out all the tall forests 2500 years ago. There are no tall trees over the age of 2500 years on the planet. The bristlecone pines on White Mountain are not living trees, they are the remains of a healthy forest that was mutilated by a massive vortex which turned much of the timber to silica and left behind fossil trees...

Only superheated, silica-laden water can do this to a tree.

[Fred Nerks]

My mistake, make that 3,500 years:

How old is the oldest Sequoia?

The oldest known giant sequoia based on ring count is 3,500 years old. Giant sequoias are among the oldest living things on Earth. Sequoia bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 90 cm (3 ft) thick at the base of the columnar trunk.

[Candor7]

They say the oldest tree on earth is a Baobab Tree in Tanzania. Its over 6000 years old.

You can see it here:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oldest-tree-on-earth-6000-years/

I think Giant Sequoias max out at 3500 years or so as you say..

[redinIllinois]

Thanks for the info!!

I just love all these old trees

[RedMonqey]

A few years ago we went to see a tree in Central Florida (can't recall exactly where) that was about 3,000 years old.

I saw that tree back in my youth. I believe it was a bald cypress and it was named "The Senator' And yes a junkie was shooting up at the base and passed out, resulting in the tree being damaged by fire.

[Fred Nerks]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oldest-tree-on-earth-6000-years/

A photograph supposedly showing the “oldest tree on earth” is frequently shared on social media. In July 2019, for instance, a post from the Facebook page Imagina claimed the tree shown below was 6,000 years old and was located in Tanzania. The post received more than 50,000 shares:

This is not the oldest tree in the world, nor is the pictured tree 6,000 years old...

As of this writing, no tree has been verified to be 6,000 or more years old. The record holder for “oldest tree in the world” is a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) near Wheeler Peak in the Rocky Mountains in Nevada. This tree, dubbed “Prometheus,” was cut down in the 1960s by geographer Donald R. Currey.

Currey, who had been granted permission from the U.S. Forest Service to take core samples of bristlecone pines in the area, found 4,862 growth rings at the center of this tree. As harsh conditions may have prevented this tree from forming a ring every year, Prometheus’ age was estimated to be 4,900 years old...

[Fred Nerks]

[Fred Nerks]

It's questionable if this mutilated specimen can be described as a living tree, twisted and stripped of almost all of its bark, what living green growth remains would hardly be adding to tree rings...

It might be wise to calculate the age of the tree based on when it was a healthy specimen, before whatever catastrophe turned it into a crippled part-fossil.

[Candor7]

Touchee !

Then I switch my allegiance to the bristle cone pine!

No more baobab for me.

[eyedigress]

They burned native Arizona palms not far from there.

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 1/16/2020, thanks Candor7.

[Fred Nerks]

THE WOLLEMI PINE TREE This is not only one of the coolest trees we came across, but it dates back over 2 million years. These strange trees were first discovered in 1994 in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Tree experts say that this species of tree lived amongst the dinosaurs and it has been deemed a “living fossil”. Researchers have stressed the importance of keeping these trees around as they may unlock more information about our planet’s past.

SOURCE

[SunkenCiv]

Pennantia baylisiana

The tree species known only as Pennantia baylisiana could be the rarest plant on Earth. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records once called it that. Just a single tree exists in the wild, on one of the Three Kings Islands off the coast of New Zealand, where it has sat, alone, since 1945. [Apr 20, 2010]

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/worlds-rarest-tree-gets-some-help/

[SunkenCiv]

• Hinckley oak

[Fred Nerks]

KAIKOMAKO MANAWA TAWHI PENNANTIA BAYLISIANA

Northern slope of Manawa Tāwhi where the lone wild Pennantia baylisiana grows

The last wild plant on Manawa Tāwhi

[Candor7]

“As a student at Kew Gardens in 2005, I was lucky enough to come across a specimen. A tiny sapling was planted in a neat circle cut out of the lawn surrounded by a metal cage to protect it from poachers. Indeed, in the early days that was a legal requirement for any of the specimens from this first batch of introductions. Looking strikingly similar to a monkey puzzle, but with soft ferny leaves instead of hard spikes and bubbled bark, I thought I’d be an old man before it took off. But boy was I wrong!
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Today the tree towers above me. It’s probably over 8m tall. Its metal cage gone, it has suckers and side branches all over the place. Shooting up at the rate of 1m a year it has already produced many crops of cones, meaning there is now a new generation of the plants grown from its seeds. Comparing this to my little monkey puzzle, which is a good half century off forming cones, and I can’t help but be seething with jealousy. So, if you love these ancient living fossils as much as I do, plant a Wollemi if you want to see it in your lifetime and a monkey puzzle if you want it for the next.”

Apparent;y you can still acquire a WOLLEMI PINE from select horticulturalists:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/14/grow-wollemi-pines-for-a-piece-of-jurassic-park-in-your-own-lifetime

[Fred Nerks]

Ancient Tree With Record of Earth's Magnetic Field Reversal in Its Rings Discovered

The tree, which had been buried in 26 feet of soil, measures eight feet in diameter and 65 feet in length. Carbon dating revealed it lived for 1,500 years, between 41,000 and 42,500 years ago.

[Fred Nerks]

Yes, my daughter grows them...a reasonably well established plant in a pot sells for approx $AU90

https://www.britannica.com/plant/Araucaria

‘The monkey puzzle tree and several other members of the genus are cultivated on the Pacific coast of the United States and also in some cases in southern Florida. They are valued for the conspicuous growth habits that set them apart from nearly all other conifers. The Norfolk Island pine (A. excelsa), a native of Norfolk Island and New Caledonia, and the bunya pine (A. bidwillii) of southeastern Queensland both find some use as houseplants during the sapling stage because of the beauty of their symmetrically tiered growth. The Moreton Bay pine (A. cunninghamii), the bunya pine, and the Paraná pine (A. angustifolia) are common outdoor ornamentals.’

[SunkenCiv]

yup.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3764152/posts

[Fred Nerks]

That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.