~ Mother Earthbeats ~

These are some examples of nature persevering despite the war we have waged against her. These plants/trees are this planets oldest living companions. They witnessed Earth in her most pure form, long before the ravages of man blistered and scarred her once beautiful face. And now they bear witness to humanity as we cut down the very air we breath to build our temples and monuments. I can only hope that when the last of mankind has realized his mortality…there is mercy.
~Hiyon Zunshyne

Kings Holly:

1997; King’s Holly (Lomatia tasmanica)
Found in the rainforests of Tasmania. Scientists estimated the age of the plant using a nearby fossil of an identical plant. It was found to be over 43,000 years old! The plants appear to be sterile - incapable of producing flowers and viable seeds. Lomatia is triploid, that is, it has three sets of chromosomes instead of two. Because of this it is unable to sexually reproduce. The clonal thickets reproduce vegetatively by root suckering. Fossil leaves found in a late Pleistocene deposit may be genetically identical to present-day plants. The plant is a rare freak of nature whose origins and age are as yet unknown.

Box Huckleberry :

August, 1999; Box Huckleberry (Gaylussacia brachycera)
Researchers in Pennsylvania have discovered a living plant that is a remnant of the last Ice Age. Using the known rate of growth if this self-sterile plant, they estimated that this 1/4-acre colony is over 13,000 years old. Researchers are still trying to verify the growth rate to determine is that age is an accurate measure.

Mongarlowe Mallee:

March, 2004; (Eucalyptus recurva)
Also known as “Mongarlowe Mallee” or “Ice Age Gum” it is the rarest Eucalypt in Australia or the world, and is known from only 5 individual specimens. Scientists in Australia are undertaking analyses to determine the exact age of one specimen that is estimated to be 13,000 years old. This aging method also relies on determining the plant’s growth rate. Scientists are stilly verifying the growth and performing genetic analyses of neighboring specimens to determine if they are from the same organism.

Creosote Bush:

April, 1980; Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata)
Scientists discovered a giant, and very ancient clone of the creosote bush in the Mojave Desert in California they estimated to be between 11,000 and 12,000 years old.

Prometheus:

1964; Bristlecone Pine (A.K.A.~Prometheus)
Prometheus, an ancient Bristlecone Pine was discovered to be among one of the oldest living trees on earth by Donald R. Curry during the summers of 1963 and 1964. In a ridiculous self-serving attempt to “prove” this, during the summer the United States Congress debated and passed the Wilderness Act of 1964, he managed to reduce the once mighty Prometheus to nothing more than a dead stump. He did this with the assistance of Donald Cox, the Forest Service District Ranger! Prometheus was later determined to be 5,100 years old. The oldest known living thing on Earth at the time. One small step for science, one giant leap for human ignorance!

Methuselah:

Methuselah (estimated germination 2832 BC)
Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) in the White Mountains of California, which was 4,789 years old when sampled in 1957 by Schulman and Harlan. It is the oldest non-clonal living organism still alive, at the age of about 4,839 years old. Located in the “Forest of Ancients” in the Methuselah Grove at between 2,900–3,000 m above sea level, its exact location is currently undisclosed to the public as a protection against vandalism.

Lets hope she never falls prey to the fate of Prometheus.