A hundred years is quite a long time by human age standards, but it is nothing compared to some of the oldest living things on earth, which are primarily plants. You may not know their names, or seen images of them but it is heartening to know that they still live among us, and have been doing so for more than fifty thousand years.
Here are two of the oldest living organisms., each more than 40,000 years old.
Pando (Quickening Aspen), Utah, US
It is the world’s oldest living organism, and the largest, and it is now in danger of extinction due to fire and damage from humans. The Pando tree colony, in Utah in the United States resembles a forest but it is in a sense, a single tree. Latin for “I spread.” Pando is generally thought to be around 80,000 years old although some scientists believe that it could be much older.
A clonal colony of quaking aspen, Pando comprises a massive root system, and each tree – all 47,000 of them – is a stem coming up from that single system, making it one giant, 106-acre individual. The key to its longevity lies in its sophisticated system of distributing water and nutrients; areas rich in nutrients and available water ferry these resources to poorer areas in need. Also, according to one expert, Pando’s “immense spread (and probable immense age) have to do with an appropriate combination of enough fire frequency to keep the conifers from taking over, but not so frequent that it doesn’t thrive, plus sufficient soil moisture for high water needs, but not so much that it swamps them out.” As mentioned, these delicate conditions are being threatened by human activity, making the Pando a highly endangered species.
Lomamtia Tasmanica (Tasmania)
The Lomatia tasmanica is so critically endangered as to have only a single individual left to its name. It was first collected in 1934, but that particular population has since died out. Another was identified in 1967, and in 1991 its age was established by radiocarbon dating fragments of identical leaves found in its vicinity – it is at least 43,600 years old, and possibly more than twice that.
Tasmania is the only place in the world where this ancient plant is found. In the wild, Lomatia tasmanica calls dark, riparian rainforest gullies home, shaded by heavy vegetation. The plant consists of several hundred stems spread over a distance of 1.2 km, and can reach up to eight meters in height if the willowy branches stand erect.
The Hobart botanical garden and another garden in Canberra are the only places the Lomatia can be found outside its natural habitat, and even then it is not on public display. In the wild, it is threatened by Phytopthora cinnamommi, an invasive plant pathogen which, without proper precautions, can be tacked in on one’s shoes and lead to root rot in susceptive plants. Botanists are the garden are trying to graft limbs of Lomaatia tasmanica onto other related species, with limited success. In the meantime, it lives in the only way it knows how: by cloning itself over and over again, in a sense becoming immortal.
