Date seeded 2833 BC | Custodian U.S. Forest Service | |
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Methuselah is a 7003484800000000000♠4,848-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California. For many years it was thought to be the world's oldest known living non-clonal organism, until it was superseded in 2012 by the discovery of another bristlecone pine in the same area with an age of 7003506600000000000♠5,066 years (germination in 3050 BC).
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Geography
Methuselah is located between 2,900 and 3,000 m (9,500 and 9,800 ft) above sea level in the "Methuselah Grove" in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest within the Inyo National Forest. Its exact location has not been publicly disclosed.
Status as oldest known tree
Methuselah was 4,789 years old when sampled (likely in 1957) by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan, with an estimated germination date of 2833 BC. Methuselah was for many years considered the world's oldest living tree, until 2012 when an older bristlecone pine was discovered and later announced in 2013.
Bristlecones
Another bristlecone specimen, WPN-114, nicknamed "Prometheus", was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964, with an estimated germination date of 2880 BC. A dendrochronology, based on these trees and other bristlecone pine samples, extends back to about 9000 BC, albeit with a single gap of about 500 years.
Clonal organisms
Other, longer-lived discoveries are clonal colony organisms, such as the 80,000-year-old Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) clonal colony named "Pando" in the Fish Lake National Forest in south-central Utah; the 11,700-year- old Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) clonal colony, named "King Clone", in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California; and the 9,500-year-old Norway spruce (Picea abies) clonal colony named "Old Tjikko" in Sweden.
