The spruce tree has long been thought to be a relative newcomer in Sweden’s mountain region. So it came as no small surprise to discover that the world’s oldest living tree is a Swedish spruce found in the Dalarna province.
In fact, the ancient spruce is the oldest of a four-generation cluster of spruce found under the crown of a spruce tree in Fulu Mountain. These trees range in age from 375 to 9,550 years old and are genetically identical to the trees above them. Spruce trees can multiply by producing identical copies of themselves.
These ancient trees eclipse the previous record holders. Ancient bristlecone pines found in the southwest United States were dated to 4,000 to 5,000 years of age and were considered to be the world’s oldest living trees until the discovery of the Swedish spruce trees.
Future studies of these trees may shed light on weather conditions over the past 10,000 years, and may even add to our knowledge of climate change in northern Europe. They may also be able to provide information on whether they came from the east, or whether their ancestors lived west or southwest of Norway and spread to the north as the last Ice Age ended.
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