2. The Oldest Trees on the Planet
March 17This collection of the oldest known trees on the planet was more popular than we ever could have predicted. All of them are at least a couple thousand years old. But some are far older, such as the Pando colony of aspens in Utah shown above, which may be as old as 1 million years.
While technically not a single tree, clonal colonies like this one defy time by sending out clones, or genetically identical shoots, so that one trunk’s demise doesn’t spell the end for the organism. The giant colonies can have thousands of individual trunks, but share the same network of roots.
Image: “Clonal Quaking Aspens #0906-4318 (80,000 years old, Fish Lake, UT)” / Rachel Sussman
The Oldest Trees on the Planet
