10 Oldest Trees on Earth
(Lists don’t agree on all
choices)
Some are older than the
Egyptian pyramids.
1. Methuselah Tree
• Species: Great Basin
Bristlecone Pine
Age: 4800
• This is a tree that was
a seedling before the
Egyptian Pyramids
went up, yet it is still
alive today; it is a
bristlecone pine more
than 46 centuries old.
• Pinus longaeva, the Great Basin
Bristlecone Pine, is a long-living species
of tree found in the higher mountains of
the southwest United States. The species
is one of three closely related trees
known as bristlecone pines and is
sometimes known as the Intermountain or
Western bristlecone pine. It is a mediumsize tree, reaching 16 to 49 ft tall and with
a trunk diameter of up to 8 ft 2 in to 11 ft
10 in in diameter. The bark is bright
orange-yellow, thin and scaly at the base
of the trunk.
2. Sarv-e-Abarkooh
• Species: Cypress
Age: 4000
• Sarv-e Abarqu ("cypress of Abarqu"),
also called the Zoroastrian Sarv, is a
cypress tree in Abarkuh, Yazd, Iran. It is
an Iranian national monument and
major tourist attraction. It is over four
thousand years old and may be the
oldest living thing in Asia.[
3. Alerce
• Species:
Fitzroya
cupressoides
Age: 3600
• In 1993 a specimen from Chile was
dated as 3622 years old. This gives it
the second-greatest fully verified (by
counting growth rings) age for any
living tree, after the Great Basin
Bristlecone Pine. Much larger
specimens existed in the past before
the species was heavily logged in the
19th and 20th centuries; Charles
Darwin reported finding a specimen
12.6 m (41' 6") in diameter.
4. Senator
• Species:
Bald cypress
Age: 3400 –
3500
• The Senator is the largest Bald Cypress
tree in the United States, located in Big
Tree Park, Longwood, Florida. It is
125 feet (38 m) tall, with a trunk
diameter of 17.5 feet (5.3 m). The
Seminole Indians and other Native
American Indians who lived throughout
Central Florida used this tree as a
landmark.
5. Jardine
Juniper
• Species:
Juniperus
scopulorum
Age: 3200
• The Jardine Juniper is an individual of the
species Juniperus scopulorum found within
Logan Canyon in the Cache National Forest.
Often credited with an age of over 3000
years, core samples taken in the 1950s
revealed that it was actually over 1500 years
old. It stands approximately 40 feet tall and
its circumference has been measured at 284
inches. Discovered in 1923 by Maurice
Blood Linford while he was a student at
Utah State Agricultural College, it was
named after USAC alumnus and former U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture William Marion
Jardine (1879–1955).
6. Patriarca
da Floresta
• Species:
Cariniana
legalis
Age: 3000
• This tree, an example of the species
Cariniana legalis named Patriarca da
Floresta in Brazil, is estimated to be
about 3,000 years old, making it the
oldest non-conifer in Brazil. The tree is
believed to be sacred, but its species is
widely threatened due to forest clearing
in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.
7. Alishan
Sacred Tree
• Species:
Formosan
Cypress
Age: 3000
• The Alishan Sacred tree in the Ali
Mountain (Alishan) is believed to be
more than 3,000 years old. The most
unique aspect about the tree is that the
generations of the tree survive in the
same trunk. This grand old tree was
formerly one of Alishan's largest trees,
but a lightning strike reduced it to an
enormous withered stump. In the 1960s
a second tree was found growing from
the stump.
8. Chestnut Tree of One
Hundred Horses
• Species:
Chestnut
Age:
20004000
• The Chestnut Tree of One Hundred Horses
(Sicilian: Castagnu dê Centu Cavaddi) is the
largest & oldest known chestnut tree in the world.
Located on Linguaglossa road in Sant'Alfio, on the
eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicily — only
5 miles from the mountain's crater — it is
generally believed to be 2,000 to 4,000 years old. It
is a Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa, family
Fagaceae). Guinness World Records has listed it
for the record of "Greatest Tree Girth Ever", noting
that it had a circumference of 190 ft when it was
measured in 1780. Above-ground the tree has
since split into multiple large trunks, but belowground these trunks still share the same roots.
9. General
Sherman
• Species:
Giant
Sequoia
Age: 23002700
• General Sherman is the name of a Giant
Sequoia with a height of 275 feet (83.8
metres). As of 2002, the volume of its
trunk measured about 1487 cubic
meters, making it the largest non-clonal
tree by volume.[1] The tree is located in
the Giant Forest of Sequoia National
Park in the United States, east of
Visalia, California. The tree is believed
to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old
10.
Jhomon
Sugi
• Species:
Sugi
Age:
2,170 –
7,200
• Jōmon Sugi (縄文杉?) is a large
cryptomeria tree located on Yakushima, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Japan. It
is the oldest and largest of nearly 2,000year-old-growth cryptomeria trees on the
island, and is estimated to be between
2,170 and 7,200 years old. Other
estimates of the tree's age include "at
least 5,000 years", "more than 6,000
years", and "up to 7,000 years old". The
tree's name is a reference to the Jōmon
period of Japanese prehistory.
A Runner Up: Olive Tree of Vouves
• This ancient olive tree is located on the
Greek island of Crete and is one of seven
olive trees in the Mediterranean believed to
be at least 2,000 to 3,000 years old.
Although its exact age cannot be verified,
the Olive Tree of Vouves might be the oldest
among them, estimated at over 3,000 years
old. It still produces olives, and they are
highly prized. Olive trees are hardy and
drought-, disease- and fire-resistant — part
of the reason for their longevity and their
widespread use in the region.