A group of bald cypress (SIGH-press) trees in the United States have just been discovered to be among the oldest in the world. One of them is at least 2624 years old, making it the fifth-oldest living tree on the planet.
Researchers measured this by taking a small core sample of the tree’s trunk, from the edge into the centre. This doesn’t harm the tree. They then counted the rings in the wood, each one representing a year the tree has been alive.
They discovered that, not only are the trees ancient, but the rings can tell us a lot about the climate. By measuring the size of the rings, they can identify droughts and other weather that the tree has lived through.
The scientists have only tested a hundred out of the tens of thousands of trees in this forest. This means it’s likely there are even older ones out there, waiting very patiently to be discovered.
Lachlan Writes Science 