# World's Oldest Tree **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260 "2003-06-16T17:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/1 "2003-06-16T17:58:06Z")
According to a Washington Post article ([Taking chips off the oldest blocks](http://www.msnbc.com/news/927108.asp)), a bristlecone pine tree “nicknamed Methuselah, … has clung to its rocky patch of ground near the Nevada border for the past 4,768 years, making it the oldest known living tree on the planet.” Now, maybe I’m wrong, but doesn’t that make it the oldest known living _anything_ on the planet? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/2 "2003-06-16T18:16:40Z")
Not if this [250,000,000 year old](http://www.moonbowmedia.com/ei/bacterium.htm)bacterium is real. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/3 "2003-06-16T18:29:36Z")
Poor, departed [Promethius](http://www.nevadadventures.com/pics&stories/bristlecone.html) was 4,950 when it met its untimely end in 1964. That would have made Promethius 220 years older than Methuselah, had it survived to the present. ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/4 "2003-06-16T18:35:41Z")
Ha! These creosotes still call your bristlecones “junior”! [http://www.lucernevalley.net/creosote/](http://www.lucernevalley.net/creosote/) ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/5 "2003-06-16T18:36:50Z")
Some famous actor (like Clint Eastwood or someone) had a really, really old tree registered in California. I mean old. And tall. I wish I could remember the details. Anyhoo, it freaks me out to think of living things that are so friggin’ old. It’s very cool. ---
**Author:** ![Bongmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Bongmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bongmaster)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/6 "2003-06-16T19:03:03Z")
I was fuming when I read that link Finch…leave it to modern humans to wreck something that stood for almost 5000 years. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/7 "2003-06-16T19:38:19Z")
Wow! I’m not sure if I would really count bacteria (although the sheer age is impressive), but I did not know about those creosote plants. Wow!! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worlds-oldest-tree/182260/8 "2003-06-16T19:53:08Z")
There was a show on I believe the Discovery Channel about the numbnut that felled the old bristlecone, only to come to the stunning realization he’d just killed the world’s oldest living tree. Science marches on, sometimes with very heavy boots. The show went on to say that Methuselah’s exact location would remain undisclosed.