Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than Dirt

Subject:	Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than Dirt
Date:	Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:14:18 -0800 (PST)

The non-digging posters will probably miss the importance of a "tree"
older than 13,000 years, but it was alive when the first men walked on
California's shores. Picture at the citation.

Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than Dirt
An unassuming tree in southern California has overcome the test of
time by surviving for more than 13,000 years.

By Michael Reilly | Wed Dec 23, 2009 08:40 AM ET

Ancient Tree (Almost) Older Than Dirt

This ancient tree, which researchers named the Jurupa Oak after the
mountains in which it grows, may be the oldest plant living in
California.

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra

At the top of a small hill in suburban southern California, there is
what appears to be a thicket of stunted, gnarled oak trees wedged
between a pile of boulders. A passerby would likely miss this ancient,
biological wonder.

The entire grove of trunks is in fact one plant, a newly discovered
Palmer's oak (Quercus palmeri) that researchers estimate is over
13,000 years old, making it one of the oldest plants on Earth.

Researchers, led by Michael May of the University of California,
Davis, found the tree a decade ago during a routine survey of local
plant life.

It's easy to miss; none of its 70 stems get more than a few feet tall,
and it grows in a boulder pile that doubles as shelter from the area's
buffeting winds.

At first glance, the scientists thought it was an isolated grove of
trees, but something didn't add up: None of them produced fertile
acorns, so the plants couldn't reproduce.

The trees were a little too similar in appearance, too -- almost like
identical twins. And Palmer's oaks typically don't grow in the hot,
parched environs of Riverside County.

The team began to suspect they were looking at a clone.

Genetic analysis confirmed their suspicion. Each of the 70 stems are
genetically identical; they are the same plant, currently growing in
an oval 25 yards long and 8 yards wide.

Plants can clone themselves in a number of ways. Aspen, for example,
sprout roots that grow into new stems, allowing these plants to spread
several feet each year.

Scientists estimate an Aspen stand in Utah, called Pando, may be tens
of thousands of years old, though estimates vary widely. And a
creosote bush growing in the Mojave Desert -- dubbed King Clone -- has
been reliably dated at nearly 12,000 years old using carbon isotopes.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/ancient-tree-jurupa-oak-california.html