The Great-Grandfather, a four-meter-thick Patagonian cypress discovered by Chilean scientists, has surpassed the current record-holder for oldest living tree by more than 600 years.
Photograph by Alerce Milenario
A Chilean scientist named Jonathan Barichivich from the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory in Paris studied the coniferous tree, which is called Alerce Milenario in Spanish. His findings suggest that the tree could be as old as 5,484 years, which is 600 years older than the previous candidate. A member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Chile’s environment minister Maisa Rojas hailed the announcement as a “marvellous scientific discovery,” as reported by The Guardian.
The Patagonian cypress, or alerce in Spanish, is a species of tree that is native to Argentina and Chile and is in the same family as the gigantic redwoods.
In 2020, Barichivich attempted to extract a sample from the Great-Grandfather, but his drill was unable to reach its core. After that, he accounted for environmental conditions and random fluctuations in his computer models to find out how old the tree was.
Although Barichivich has not yet published an estimate of the tree’s age in a scientific journal, he plans to make up for it in the coming months. This is because he has not yet entirely counted the tree’s year rings.
If verified, the findings would place Alerce Milenario 600 years ahead of the current world record-holder, the 4,853-year-old smooth pine from California known as Methuselah.
Located in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California, the 4,853-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree known as Methuselah was once a contender for the title of oldest tree in the world. Photo by Yen Chao
The cracks of Alerce Costero National Park provide a home for mosses, lichens, and other plants, and Great-Grandfather lives in this chilly, damp habitat.
Visitors to the park being able to walk around its trunk and droughts caused by global warming pose threats to the tree, according to Barichivich.
Bravely face Alerce Milenario. Picture source: faoch
Since cellulose production is a significant sector in Chile, the forestry institute reports that logging plantations in the southern region of the country encompass approximately 2.3 million hectares.
The majority of this region (93%) is covered by non-native pine and eucalyptus plantations, which are thirsty for water. However, between 1973 and 2011, more than 780,000 hectares of natural forest in Chile were destroyed.
We can only pray that Great-Grandfather and its wild relatives will be able to withstand human interference.