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World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

sciencenorway.no

41–50 of 65 posts

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#41
post #2

Had to read this in reader mode because while the text of the article was in English, the cookie pop up was in what I’m guessing is Norwegian, and covered most of the space where the text is. Who does that?

Every news source on the planet it seems. This source didn't localize to your language (I had the same frustration), but every website seems to do this, this one just didn't localize the cookie prompt. Not going to lie, it seems a bit presumptuous to expect that a local Norwegian source has every aspect of their site optimized for English readers. Aside from the Norwegian text, it was a standard cookie click-through.…

> This source didn't localize to your language (I had the same frustration), but every website seems to do this, this one just didn't localize the cookie prompt.

> Not going to lie, it seems a bit presumptuous to expect that a local Norwegian source has every aspect of their site optimized for English readers.

Not at all, when they're presenting an article written in English.

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#42
post #15

Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden, though this is indeed East of Trysil in Norway. Since Sciencenorway.no (!) is a Norwegian outlet, they need to at least attempt to make their articles relevant for Norway. The outlet is the English version of Forskning.no. Forskning means research in Norwegian, but in this instance it really means science. Their focus is to bring news about what Norwegian scie…

The corresponding Swedish term is "burknyheter" (canned news) I believe. For slow seasons, news are pulled from the can.

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#43

If you happen to be in California and want to see the oldest non-clonal trees in the world, visit the Bristlecone Pines in the white mountains near Mammoth. But maybe do it soon... https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-06-27/drought...

sad

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#45
post #15

Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden, though this is indeed East of Trysil in Norway. Since Sciencenorway.no (!) is a Norwegian outlet, they need to at least attempt to make their articles relevant for Norway. The outlet is the English version of Forskning.no. Forskning means research in Norwegian, but in this instance it really means science. Their focus is to bring news about what Norwegian scie…

> Just to be clear, the tree is found in Dalarna in Sweden

They point it out in the introduction: "discovered a tree up on Fulufjället – in Sweden just east of Trysil municipality in Norway" also it says "near the Norwegian-Swedish border" in the headline.

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#46

Did other people think before clicking on the link "I really hope they don't say where it is or provide a picture, because someone is sure to go find it and chop it down"? Has the Internet ruined me?

Quite similar, yes.

I went to comments precisely to say I really wish they'd stop bringing mass Internet attention to vulnerable wonders of nature like these. It places them in terrible danger.

The sadist with an axe is definitely a real threat as has been seen repeatedly, but even if not, the stampede of a selfie-crowd is a danger in itself for something like this. There are ancient plants that have had life-threatening damage from suddenly having unreasonable numbers of people clinging on them for photos and wearing down the grown all the way through the roots.

I certainly don't want to see this sort of reporting just to fill space during a news drought.

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#47
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it's from German around 1780, for the time during the summer when the cucumbers ripen, everyone is on vacation, and business is slow. That's what the Danish wikipedia entry says, at least. https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurketid#Ophav https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_season#Other_names

We have the same expression in Dutch: "komkommertijd". The Dutch Wikipedia mentions English, German or Jiddisch as possible sources: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komkommertijd

Everytime tehre is a funny word in German E.g. "Hechtsuppe" I assume it to be Jiddisch or Rotwelsch.

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#48
This blew my mind. Gives an idea of the timescales we're talking about:

"The reason why Old Tjikko now finds itself on the barren rock near Trysil – more than a hundred metres higher than what is considered the tree line – is simply that the spruce tree rose along with the mountain it grows on during the land uplift that followed the ice age."

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#49

Did other people think before clicking on the link "I really hope they don't say where it is or provide a picture, because someone is sure to go find it and chop it down"? Has the Internet ruined me?

The tree has a website (The website honors the age of the tree by also looking like something prehistoric) [1], information about it and its location is readily available on the national park's website [2], it has a Wikipedia article [3], and of course it's on Google Maps. So I don't really think this article provides anything new.

[1]: http://www.oldtjikko.se/OldTjikkoFulufjallet.html

[2]: https://www.sverigesnationalparker.se/park/fulufjallets-nati...

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko

Re: World's oldest tree still growing near the Norwegian-Swedish border

#50

This blew my mind. Gives an idea of the timescales we're talking about: "The reason why Old Tjikko now finds itself on the barren rock near Trysil – more than a hundred metres higher than what is considered the tree line – is simply that the spruce tree rose along with the mountain it grows on during the land uplift that followed the ice age."

The article conflates two phenomena...

1. The uplift of the land after the glacier melt.

2. The fact that spruces "multiply" by spreading out their roots and can thereby migrate over centuries.

The 2nd point sort of dances on the definition of "reproduction" and "individual". Genetically this tree is identical to it's original "cloned parent" from 9500 years ago, but there are also "other?" spruce trees lower down the mountain along the tree line that are it's "siblings?"/"self?" - now detached from one another.

That's the thing with nature - it doesn't always follow definitions we place on it. net-net, this isn't quite the same as finding a tree that's individually born and still 10000 years old.

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