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A small clipping (FT155/14) got me wondering about this NZ tree in NW Spain - here are several Google links to the story.
Cryptobotany?
- Thread starter rynner2
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It could just be a lot younger than they suppose - it may be that the conditions in this area of Spain are just right for it in terms of maximum growth and it has just sped off. For example Giant redwood love the conditions in Scotland and in a few years (quiet a few) they will probably be larger than the Californian native examples.
Gordon
Gordon
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The cryptic (or mysterious) thing is why is the tree out of place? (For the Aussie pines, why are they out of time?) In neither case is the answer likely to be be really weird (tree-loving aliens in flying saucers, anyone?!), but it's just a puzzle.
Another puzzle is why don't they simply date the tree via tree rings? This can be done by drilling a narrow core from the tree, which doesn't harm it. It would be interesting too to see if that would reveal a 'flip-over' when the tree changed from southern to northern hemisphere seasons! (Probably not, as the tree was presumably transported as a very small sapling.)
Another puzzle is why don't they simply date the tree via tree rings? This can be done by drilling a narrow core from the tree, which doesn't harm it. It would be interesting too to see if that would reveal a 'flip-over' when the tree changed from southern to northern hemisphere seasons! (Probably not, as the tree was presumably transported as a very small sapling.)
With relation to tree ring coring this is only slightly on topic but makes a valid point about the human species, our relation to nature and the sixth mass extinction.
I was watching a program a few years ago with my dad (Horizon, i think) and it was about the Methuselah trees of N.America. Salt brush pine i think is another name for them. Anyway they are the oldest living single organisms on earth. One that had a core sample taken was 4000 years old. It had been around when mammoths were still to be seen on Wrangel island off Siberia.
The American scientist who was studying them came across what looked to be an extremely old individual and tried to take a core sample. But if youve seen these trees you'll know what a bent and gnarly shape they are- he couldnt take a straight sample. So, and this is just unbelievable to my mind, he cut it in two. Chopped it down to read the rings. It was over 5500 years old. He sat there in his university office chair and boasted "i killed the oldest living thing on this planet".
I was watching a program a few years ago with my dad (Horizon, i think) and it was about the Methuselah trees of N.America. Salt brush pine i think is another name for them. Anyway they are the oldest living single organisms on earth. One that had a core sample taken was 4000 years old. It had been around when mammoths were still to be seen on Wrangel island off Siberia.
The American scientist who was studying them came across what looked to be an extremely old individual and tried to take a core sample. But if youve seen these trees you'll know what a bent and gnarly shape they are- he couldnt take a straight sample. So, and this is just unbelievable to my mind, he cut it in two. Chopped it down to read the rings. It was over 5500 years old. He sat there in his university office chair and boasted "i killed the oldest living thing on this planet".
A
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:eek!!!!: