03-17-2024, 05:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-18-2024, 08:40 PM by Man From Ironbark.)
The oldest living tree, considers that it is the same tree from the same seed.
Clonal trees are for some reason not considered as indvidual specimens. This is something that plagues my small brian. The seed started the tree, whether it has continued hence to continually clone itself may well be due to environmental factors and it does not necessarily lose any life along the way.
Wiki states: As with all long-lived plant and fungal species, no individual part of a clonal colony is alive (in the sense of active metabolism) for more than a very small fraction of the life of the entire clone. Some clonal colonies may be fully connected via their root systems, while most are not actually interconnected, but are genetically identical clones which populated an area through vegetative reproduction. Ages for clonal colonies, often based on current growth rates, are estimates.
Then goes on to list a series of clonal trees and their estimated ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ol...onal_trees
On the same page is all the rest of the story anout the oldest trees..
Yes some clonal species such as the quaking aspen, dies every 130 years or so and regrows from the roots.
Others like the Mangarlowe mallee continually not only regrow from the same lignotuber but also grow in a circle of additional lignnotubers established by the same unique tree.
Then there's the Lomatia tasmanica which is an endangered species with only one population, consisting of several hundred genetically identical individuals. Although it flowers occasionally, fruit production has never been observed, and it propagates vegetatively. Fossilized leaves are dated as at least 43,600 years old, found in sediments with a maximum age of 130,000.
Huon pine: Several genetically identical males that have reproduced vegetatively. Although single trees in this stand may be around 3 to 4 thousand years old, the stand itself as a single organism has existed for 10,000 years.
There has been pollen of the same level deposited on the lake each year in present times, as that found in the sediments dated at 10,300 years. All of the pollen has exact genetic material. In other words the 2,500 square metre copse area, is the same male tree that has been the same size in pollen production for longer than 10,300 years. So pending further discoveries of older pollen production, who really knows how long the tree has been looking for a female of the species? I mean if it was the same size way back then, how long did it take to grow to that size? What caused it to be the only tree on a mountainside from that species? Huon pines exist elsewhere on Tasmania but this one tree remains alone and distanced from other populations. It is considered that this tree propagates itself by the weight of snow on branches forcing them to fall to the ground and grow roots at the contact point.
The Wollemi pine: "Once you accept that a common, genetically identical stock can define a tree, then the absolute “winner” for oldest tree (or the oldest clonal material belonging to a tree) [in Australia] must go to the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis). It may be more than 60 million years old. The Wollemi pine clones itself, forming exact genetic copies. It was thought to be extinct until a tiny remnant population was discovered in Wollemi National Park in 1994... There is also substantial evidence that the tree has been cloning itself and its unique genes ever since it disappeared from the fossil record more than 60 million years ago."
The Antarctic Beech: Three individuals approximately 2000 years old are the parent trees to others in the surrounding forest; they grow clones by coppicing new shoots radially, forming a ring at the base of the parent tree trunk. These trees were isolated as continental drift put them in a place out of their usual climatic zone and have not produced a seedling for thousands of years but have continued on cloning themselves for somewhere less than 70 million years.
In the above instances the trees were isolated and as such could no longer make seed yet have continued on in spite of the conditions to live far longer than any tree classified as an individual by dint of the fact that it grew from a seed.
Clonal trees are for some reason not considered as indvidual specimens. This is something that plagues my small brian. The seed started the tree, whether it has continued hence to continually clone itself may well be due to environmental factors and it does not necessarily lose any life along the way.
Wiki states: As with all long-lived plant and fungal species, no individual part of a clonal colony is alive (in the sense of active metabolism) for more than a very small fraction of the life of the entire clone. Some clonal colonies may be fully connected via their root systems, while most are not actually interconnected, but are genetically identical clones which populated an area through vegetative reproduction. Ages for clonal colonies, often based on current growth rates, are estimates.
Then goes on to list a series of clonal trees and their estimated ages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ol...onal_trees
On the same page is all the rest of the story anout the oldest trees..
Yes some clonal species such as the quaking aspen, dies every 130 years or so and regrows from the roots.
Others like the Mangarlowe mallee continually not only regrow from the same lignotuber but also grow in a circle of additional lignnotubers established by the same unique tree.
Then there's the Lomatia tasmanica which is an endangered species with only one population, consisting of several hundred genetically identical individuals. Although it flowers occasionally, fruit production has never been observed, and it propagates vegetatively. Fossilized leaves are dated as at least 43,600 years old, found in sediments with a maximum age of 130,000.
Huon pine: Several genetically identical males that have reproduced vegetatively. Although single trees in this stand may be around 3 to 4 thousand years old, the stand itself as a single organism has existed for 10,000 years.
There has been pollen of the same level deposited on the lake each year in present times, as that found in the sediments dated at 10,300 years. All of the pollen has exact genetic material. In other words the 2,500 square metre copse area, is the same male tree that has been the same size in pollen production for longer than 10,300 years. So pending further discoveries of older pollen production, who really knows how long the tree has been looking for a female of the species? I mean if it was the same size way back then, how long did it take to grow to that size? What caused it to be the only tree on a mountainside from that species? Huon pines exist elsewhere on Tasmania but this one tree remains alone and distanced from other populations. It is considered that this tree propagates itself by the weight of snow on branches forcing them to fall to the ground and grow roots at the contact point.
The Wollemi pine: "Once you accept that a common, genetically identical stock can define a tree, then the absolute “winner” for oldest tree (or the oldest clonal material belonging to a tree) [in Australia] must go to the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis). It may be more than 60 million years old. The Wollemi pine clones itself, forming exact genetic copies. It was thought to be extinct until a tiny remnant population was discovered in Wollemi National Park in 1994... There is also substantial evidence that the tree has been cloning itself and its unique genes ever since it disappeared from the fossil record more than 60 million years ago."
The Antarctic Beech: Three individuals approximately 2000 years old are the parent trees to others in the surrounding forest; they grow clones by coppicing new shoots radially, forming a ring at the base of the parent tree trunk. These trees were isolated as continental drift put them in a place out of their usual climatic zone and have not produced a seedling for thousands of years but have continued on cloning themselves for somewhere less than 70 million years.
In the above instances the trees were isolated and as such could no longer make seed yet have continued on in spite of the conditions to live far longer than any tree classified as an individual by dint of the fact that it grew from a seed.
Happiness simply is.
There need be no pursuit.
There need be no pursuit.