What's The Oldest Tree in the World?

Ancient trees are fascinating, but the answer to the question in the title isn't as cut and dried as it might first seem. There are two major contenders for the superlative, and Hank has all the important information on both of them in this episode of SciShow. Which one would you give the title to?

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[TheYpurias]

An 80, 000 year old organism that uses clones to live forever and has a heart too far underground to be killed by conventional means. I'm sure it means us no harm, so long as we remember to feed the shoggoth.

[than]

Last year I found one of the oldest verified bristlecone pine trees. Though only 2, 515~ years old it was still the oldest of its particular species of bristlecone. It was life changing in a weird way to touch something that's been alive since before Alexander the Great existed.

[TehAntiSpammer]

Pando has a heart hidden beneath the Earth? Sounds like a boss fight to me C:

[bullsquid]

Spending 80'000 years only with clones of myself...
sounds like hell.

[Volvith]

When you think you're suffering from blue-balls, just think about pando.

[SciShow]

Old Tjikko is a clonal tree. The trunk is only a few hundred years old, but the root system has been continuous for over 9000 years. So we lumped this in with the clonal systems, of which Pando is the oldest known. But life is weird and hard to categorize, you could make the case that Pando is the oldest living single tree because it's a clonal individual, not a clonal colony.

[atillathehunn]

"Thats quite a dry spell"   Good one hank! That made me lol!!

[SciShow]

We probably should have included Old Tjikko, but we sorta lumped it in with the clonal colonies (some of which are much older) because it is a clonal tree...it's trunk is only a few hundred years old, but it's root system is far older. When trees fall, often their root systems will continue to survive and sprout new trunks. Old Tjikko is different from Pando in that it is a single trunk-and-root system that has persisted for many thousands of years, making it considerably more fragile

[KipperTheArt]

I love nature. It never ceases to amaze me.

[akirashock]

I wonder if Pando was behind Cameron's inspiration of Pandora where trees are connected to each other.

[ChesireWaltz]

I love how fast he and John talk! It's great because I usually can't watch videos for too long because I get impatient with how long the people are taking to just spit it out lmao. Also I now wonder how many other tree networks like Pando there are...

[SciShow]

That's a good idea...I've had that one kickin' around in my head for a while. I think it's more a series than a single video though. Keep your eye out for it!

[jamesmccreery]

I just realized I've visited both! The view of the Sierra Nevada from the white mountains is the best thing I've seen.

[michaelwilliams]

A definitive statement about the age of the pyramids of Ghiza is bold to say the least.

[anglexfluffy]

Am I the only one who thinks pando is cheating

[ParallaxVue]

Alive for 80, 000 years is simply amazing. It seems remarkably considering the 10k years sans romance. Isn't reproduction the ultimate goal of all living species? In any event, it must have an awesome retirement plan.

[mrks]

oldest tree? ur grandpas morning "wood"

[larrytolemy]

Weather your'e a genius or just a great researcher, I always totally enjoy the facts and illustrations you put out. I hope you never loose your curiosity because often times you give answers to questions people haven't thought about. GOD BLESS YOU & your curiosity!

[ConspiracySundays]

Pando, the beginning of sentient plants...

[AlchemicalForge]

guys please check out my new book. "10, 000 Years as a Forest with Blueballs"