The Oldest and Largest Living Organisms
What was the world like in 2700 BC? Babylon flourished as a nation. It was a time before the Pharaohs built the great pyramids, even before Abraham was called to leave Ur in Chaldea and much before the Egyptians discovered papyrus for writing. At that time a pine seed germinated in the White Mountains of California and 4700 years later it still survives and continues to grow as the oldest known living organism. That is a specimen of Pinus longaeva known as Methuselah
For Mary and me, it was such a pleasure to be among these ancient trees. Our son, Robert, his wife Debra and their three sons, who live in Sacramento, provided the means for us to visit this exotic site in early August this year.
The bristlecone pines grow above 10,000 feet in scattered stands in six southwestern states. Those of the Inyo National Forest in the White Mountains are the oldest known trees of this species. They are located in the Sierras near the Nevada border.
The bristlecones grow in limestone soil, arid land and in the rigors of 10,000 foot elevation on windswept and almost barren soil. The mature trees are shrubby in shape and seldom reach 50 feet tall. Fire and windblown sand sculpt the pines into beautiful shapes and forms. These trees have adjusted to their environment by growing in favorable years and curtailing their growth in dry seasons. They adjust to the arid environments by the dying of the older part with a small portion continuing to live. Most of the tree is exposed dead wood.
Another adaptation is that the needles may live up to 40 years, whereas most pines have needles that are less than four years old. The trees are shallow-rooted which allows the roots to absorb the few small rains that fall and the melting snow.
Another interesting aspect is that those trees growing on the north-facing slopes, where there is more moisture, grow faster but do not live as long as those of the slow-growing, drier, south-facing slopes. The wood of the older trees is dense, very resinous and resistant to rot, diseases and insect penetration.
A reprint of a USDA Forest Service Bulletin describes a cross dating technique that overlaps tree-ring patterns of living and dead trees that assemble a continuous ring pattern for 10,000 years. By using this information and by measuring carbon-14 (C-14) in these samples, the radiocarbon dating process has provided a calibrating factor that is now used to correct the dating C-14 process.
On our California visit, we saw also the largest living organism: the giant redwoods, Sequoiadendron giganteum. The Big Tree inhabits the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas from Placer County to Tolare County, a belt of about 250 miles long and at an altitude of 4,300 - 8,000 feet. Unlike the coastal California redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, which occur in pure stands, the Big Trees are scattered among other conifers in small groves.
The northernmost limit of the species is the much visited Calaveras Grove, which we visited. Discovered by John Bidwell in 1841, this grove contains about 100 trees today. Some trees carry the names of famous Americans. The General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park is reputed to be the largest tree in the world. It is 272 ‘ high and 36 ‘ in diameter at the base. The General Grant tree in the General Grant National Park is 267’ tall and has a base diameter of 40 ‘ .
The wood is light, straight-grained, soft and more brittle than the coastal redwoods and is more difficult to work. Fallen logs, however, remain sound in the forest for hundreds of years.
The Calaveras Grove was again discovered in 1852 by goldminer, Agustus W. Dowd, who was hunting a wounded grizzly bear. The word of this discovery soon spread throughout the world and visitors flocked to the scene that today is known as the North Grove of Sierra Redwoods at Calaveras Big Tree State Park.
In 1853 the ‘Dowd Big Tree’ was stripped of its bark and felled by speculators with tools of that era- long-handled pump augers and wedges. It took 5 men 22 days to drill all the holes. The perfectly symmetrical tree, although completely severed, did not fall for several days.
The stump was planed smooth to serve as a dance floor. A two lane bowling alley and a bar were built on the fallen trunk. Many people including Dowd protested the destruction of this gigantic tree. John Muir, one of this country’s earliest and best known conservationist, wrote: ‘’The vandals then danced upon the stump!’’
This tree, the largest in the North Grove, was over 25 feet in diameter 4 1/2 feet from the ground and 300 feet tall. It was found to be 1,244 years old. If it had survived until 2002, it might be 325 ‘ tall and 27-28 ‘ in diameter. What a shame!
The largest living tree in the Grove is the Empire State. Its base diameter is 30 feet, at 4.5 feet from the ground, It is 20 feet in diameter. At 48 feet from the ground, it is 16 feet in diameter.
The Sierra redwoods are the largest organisms to have ever lived on the earth. The fossil record of the family dates back to the age of the dinosaurs. Individuals can live over 3,000 years. Once widespread, they are now found only in 75 small groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
Mary and I feel very privileged to have been in the presence of these wondrous trees, both the oldest and the largest organisms since the beginning of life on this planet.
– Percy