The Oldest Known Tree in Europe Is Having a Growth Spurt

By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | May 30, 2018 07:15pm ET

Perched high on a cliff in southern Italy, a bone-white pine tree has watched the Renaissance come and go, seen dozens of wars rage and resolve, and stood by as thousands of less-persistent organisms lived and died on the rocky slopes below. The tree, nicknamed Italus, has seen a lot. You would, too, if you were more than 1,200 years old.

With a life span of about 1,230 years, Italus has been deemed the oldest scientifically dated tree in Europe, according to a new paper published May 16 in the journal Ecology. The stately Heldreich's pine was discovered in an ancient grove among several other millennium-old trees in Italy's Pollino National Park, south of Naples. [Gallery: The Oldest Living Things in the World]

Italus, the oldest of the trees studied over a recent three-year survey, snags the title of Europe's oldest tree from the 1,077-year-old Bosnian pine known as Adonis, which was dated in Greece in 2016. Unlike Adonis, though, dating Italus wasn't as simple as counting rings; the old pine's insides were too mangled with age to get a clear reading.

"The inner part of the wood was like dust — we never saw anything like it," study co-author Alfredo Di Filippo, a professor in the Department of Sciences and Technology for Agriculture, Forest, Environment and Energy at Tuscia University in Viterbo, Italy, told National Geographic. "There were at least 20 centimeters [7.9 inches] of wood missing, which represents a lot of years."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/62697-italus-europes-oldest-dated-tree.html




Oldest European Tree Found—And It's Having a Growth Spurt
A Heldreich's pine discovered in southern Italy has been thriving in a remote part of a national park for 1,230 years.
BY SANDRINE CEURSTEMONT

PUBLISHED MAY 25, 2018

A craggy pine tree growing in southern Italy is 1,230 years old, making it the oldest tree in Europe that has been scientifically dated.

Moreover, the ancient pine seems to be living it up in its old age, researchers reported last week in the journal Ecology. Examinations show that the tree had a growth spurt in recent decades, where larger rings were added to its trunk even though many trees in the Mediterranean region have been experiencing a decline in growth.

The discovery shows that some trees can survive for centuries even when subjected to extreme changes in climate. This ancient pine, for example, would have germinated in a cold period during Medieval times and then lived through much warmer temperatures, including periods of drought. (Find out how scientists brought a 32,000-year-old plant back to life.)

Analysing its growth through so many years of shifting conditions can help scientists better understand how forests at large might respond to modern climate change, the study team says.

More:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/oldest-tree-europe-italy-pine-climate-science/?beta=true