Methuselah (tree)

Methuselah (tree)

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Methuselah (tree)

The Methuselah Grove, in the Inyo National Forest, California, USA.

Methuselah (estimated germination 2832 BC) is a 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 one of the oldest known non-clonal organisms still alive, at the age of about 4,839 years old.^[1]^[2] It was the oldest known individual tree in the world until the discovery of the 9,500 year old Norway spruce clonal individual known as Old Tjikko in Sweden.^[3]

The tree is named after Methuselah, a Biblical figure reputed to have lived 969 years. 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;^[4] the coordinates cited here refer to the Methuselah Grove Visitor Center.

An older specimen, WPN-114 and nicknamed Prometheus, was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964 (estimated germination date 2880 BC). Another tree, approximately 4,600 years old, is still living. A dendrochronology, based on these trees and other bristlecone pine samples, extends back to about 9000 BC, albeit with a single gap of about 500 years.^[5]