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

sciencenorway.no

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

#51

Post by q1w2 »

alkonaut wrote: post #17
vesinisa wrote: post #3

That title is rather clickbaity for a "science" magazine. Crucially, the tree prominently featured in the large picture is not 10,000 years old and only its root system originates from that period: > Today Old Tjikko’s tree trunk is only five metres high. Although the spruce may have had many such trunks over the millennia, the tree's root system has survived all these years. No part of today’s living tree is as old…

The cool thing about it and what does give it the 10k year feel is that it grows in a spot that was only low enough for trees to grow 10k years ago because the mountain has risen 100 meters since, and it couldn’t start growing there now.

Sort of. The article also says that spruce trees slowly migrate via spreading their root systems. So this tree "system" probably originated lower along the tree line and migrated up over the centuries.

The article has conflicting information on this point.

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

#52

Post by davidspiess »

I recently watched a german documentary "Das geheime Leben der Bäume" [1] where they visit this exact tree. Highly recommend it. The documentary is based on a novel of the same name by the author Peter Wohlleben [2].

[1]: https://www.3sat.de/film/dokumentarfilm/das-geheime-leben-de...

[2]: https://www.amazon.de/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate-Discover...

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

#54

Post by rhn_mk1 »

beanjuice wrote: post #8
__alexs wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is a "tree"? None of the leaves on Methuselah are 5000 years old, but we say that the tree is that old. Kind of a Tree of Theseus situation going on.

You are 10 years old, I am also 10 years old. We are all 10 years old. [10] [10] https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/your-body-is-youn...

The river is a thousand years old. The oldest water in it just came from the spring a few days ago.

Yet take away any water younger than a week, and the river is gone.

How do you measure an age of a process defined by change?

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

#55

Post by BLO716 »

Reminds me of a story of Donal Rusk Currey and his unfortunate undoing while doing his job.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-one-man-accide...

One last note, as I've been to The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in recent years, it's an AMAZING panacea of views up high as the eye can see. I THINK you can see almost all of the Sierra Nevada across the valley in a couple points, and its breath taking how beautiful it is.

Worth visiting, but as a short fat white guy in technology - be ready for the thin air, and absolutely grueling hikes if you explore. It's SOOOO worth it for anyone in the Bay Area to make this trek.

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

#56

Post by marttt »

aerique wrote: post #28
madmoose wrote: post #25

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

Same in Estonia, "hapukurgihooaeg". Literal translation of the German "Sauregurkenzeit".

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

#57

Post by BurningFrog »

pengstrom wrote: post #42
kebman wrote: 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.

There is also "rötmånad", ("rot month") which refers to the time of year it's warm enough for things to go bad quickly.

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

#60

Post by tuwtuwtuwtuw »

sleepyhead wrote: post #45
kebman wrote: 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.

Also, it is only about 4km from the border. This is "near" in this context (context being relatively unpopulated area with not much things except for nature within 4km).
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