One of the biggest nations in the world, the United States is the location of numerous woods that are under protection.
Some of the world’s largest, tallest, and oldest trees can be found inside these forests.
Nearly all of the trees on this list are still alive and have a combined age of several thousand years!
The majority of these trees are bristlecone pines or giant sequoias, which are among the world’s oldest non-clonal trees.
The two oldest trees in America are part of huge clonal colonies that have reproduced themselves repeatedly over the course of tens of thousands of years.
The world’s oldest known trees range in age from 5000 to 13,000 years.
Dendrochronological count core samples, documented tree rings, carbon dating methods, and other methods are used to determine tree ages.
10 Oldest trees in USA
- Pando
- Jurupa Oak
- Llangernyw Yew
- Methuselah
- Old Tjikko
- Muir Snag
- Bennett Juniper
- The President
- Grizzly Giant
- Washington
1.Pando
Scientists gave the Pando clone its Latin moniker, which means “I spread,” when they first discovered it. Pando is an aspen clone that multiplies by sprouting new shoots from its extending root system.
It came from a single seed.
Pando, which weighs around 13 million pounds, is thought to be the biggest and densest organism ever discovered. The clone, which has more than 40,000 distinct trees, covers 106 acres. Although it is difficult to determine the exact age of the clone and its root system, it is thought to have begun at the end of the last ice age.
It was first recognized by researchers in the 1970s and more recently proven by geneticists. Its massive size, weight, and prehistoric age have caused worldwide fame.
Pando, which is about a mile southwest of Fish Lake on State Highway 25, is situated in central Utah in the Fishlake National Forest.
The summertime reprieve from the heat you experience upon entering the basin is symbolised by the green, fluttering leaves.
The oranges and yellows of the leaves as they change colour in the autumn are a prelude to the fall splendour of the Fish Lake Basin.
Central Utah has drawn visitors from many states and other countries who want to see and experience Pando, particularly in the fall when the leaves change golden and orange.
The Pando Clone was recognised as one of the “40 Wonders of America” in 2006 and was commemorated on a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.
Current Age : over 80,000 years old
Location: Fishlake National Forest, Utah
Species: Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
Still Alive: Yes
2. Jurupa Oak
The tree has the scientific name Palmer’s Oak, but it is popularly referred to as Jurupa Oak because it was found in California’s Jurupa Mountains.
Quercus Palmeri, often known as Palmer’s Oak, is thought to be more than 13,000 years old.
By cloning itself, this clonal colony organism has endured for thousands of years.
Based on the size of the colony and the growth of individual stems, researchers assessed its age.
When you hear the word “oak,” you probably picture gigantic trees, but in this instance, we’re talking about a group of little shrubs that stubbornly fight against time.
The Palmer’s Oak has survived the breakup of Britain from continental Europe, the extinction of mammoths and saber-toothed cats, and the beginning of human agriculture by continually duplicating itself.
It is one of the oldest plants known to man, having emerged from an acorn around 13,000 years ago.
This tree, in the creationist interpretation of history, was about 7,000 years old when the cosmos was born.
When first discovered in 2009, Jurupa Oak had:
- 70 clusters of stems;
- 2.5 kilometers (1.55 miles) in width;
- 1 meter (3.28 feet) in height.
It is well known that Palmer’s oaks grow up in a mountain environment with cool, wet climates. That’s why the location of Jurupa Oak, is considered unique because the Jurupa mountains are arid and at a lower altitude.
Current Age : over 13,000 years
Location: Jurupa Mountains, Riverside County, California
Species: Palmer’s Oak (Quercus palmeri)
Still Alive: Yes
3.Llangernyw Yew
The Llangernyw Yew is a very old tree that is thought to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, though precise dating is exceedingly difficult because the core of the tree has beenlost to the ages.
In honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee, the Tree Council selected the Llangernyw Yew one of the Fifty Great British Trees in 2002.Welsh mythology features the tree in some capacity.
The tree is frequently linked to a spirit known as Angelystor or the Recording Angel, according to mythology literature.
From the altar of a nearby church, the Angel delivers a prophecy every Halloween listing the names of parishioners who will pass away before the following Halloween.
People congregate beneath the church’s east window and listen intently to see if their names appear on the angel’s list.
A tiny field of tombstones is situated just on the other side of the forested gateway, and the tree’s cleft trunk appears to be a living portal to the afterlife.
Name: Llangernyw Yew
Age: between 4,000 and 5,000 years.
Species: Common Yew (Taxus baccata).
Location: Convoy, Wales.
4. Methuselah
An Ancient Great basin, 4,800 years old,
The Methuselah Tree is a bristlecone pine that grows high in the White Mountains in eastern California.
The Methuselah Tree, named after the Biblical character who lived for 969 years, is located in the “Forest of Ancients” of the Inyo National Forest, where it is flanked by other old trees.
However, to prevent vandalism, the tree’s precise position is kept a secret.
The legendary tree was 4,789 years old when samples were taken from it in 1957 by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan.
Methuselah is one of the oldest known live trees and non-clonal organisms in the world, with an estimated tree germination date of 2832 BCE.
Methuselah has a germination date of 2832 BCE, making him older than the Egyptian Pyramids.
It still has a little while to go before it surpasses Prometheus, another bristlecone specimen that was inadvertently destroyed in 1964 at the age of 4,844 years.
Current Age (as of 2020): 4,852 years
Location: White Mountains, Inyo County, California
Species: Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva)
Still Alive: Yes
5.Old Tjikko
Old Tjikko is a Norway spruce (Picea abies) of the Fulufjället Mountain in Dalarna, Sweden. He was born
there approximately 9,550 years ago.
It was proclaimed the oldest tree in the world in 2008 when it was initially found in Sweden. Its age is estimated to be somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 years.
But that was before Jurupa Oak, which was found a year later, was found. Tjikko is also just an eighth as ancient as Pando, who is 80,000 years old.
Old Tjikko, which is older than recorded history, first appeared around 7550 BC, according to carbon dating.
It is the oldest known Norway spruce in the world and spent the first few thousand years of its existence as a krummholz, a shrub formation.
According to Kullman, “the recent temperature warming since roughly 1915 is the reason we may see this spruce as a tree today.
The tree first appeared in a harsh tundra environment about 10,000 years ago, but when the climate warmed, it was able to develop from a shrub to a typical tree morphology.
Name: Old Tjikko
Age: 9,500
Species: Picea abies
Location: Mountain of Dalarna province in Sweden.
6. Muir Snag
The oldest redwood tree in the world, according to legend, is Muir Snag. Muir Snag, who is no longer alive, is thought to be more than 3,500 years old.
Despite being dead, the tree is still standing in California’s Converse Basin of the Giant Sequoia National Monument.
The largest base diameter of the huge sequoia is 35.9 feet and it is roughly 140 feet (43 m) tall (10.9 m).
The Converse Basin once held the title of having the second-largest grove of giant sequoias in the entire globe. Sadly, in the late 1880s, a large portion of the grove’s 6,000 trees were removed.
Fortunately, Muir Snag was one of the few larger and older trees that survived—between 60 and 100 in total.
Current Age (as of 2020): Over 3,500 years
Location: Converse Basin Grove, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Sierra Nevada, California
Species: Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Still Alive: No
7.The President
The oldest known living redwood tree is a huge sequoia known only as President.
The President is the second largest tree in the world when measured by trunk volume.
The President had a volume of roughly 45,000 cubic feet (1,300 m3) when it was last measured in 2012, plus an additional 9,000 cubic feet (250 m3) of branches.
With a height of 247 feet (75 m), which is about 30 feet less than the largest known sequoia, it is not the tallest gigantic sequoia.
The Warren G. Harding Tree is another name for the President tree, which was given to President Harding in 1923.
The President is still able to grow even when some of its main trunk is dead.
It is one among the sequoias that grows the fastest, with average annual growth over the past ten years of 22.5 ft3 (0.64 m3) and 700 lb (318 kg).
Current Age : 3,200 years
Location: Sequoia National Park, Sierra Nevada, California
Species: Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Still Alive: Yes
8. Bennett Juniper
The Bennett Juniper is the oldest known juniper in the world and the tallest juniper in the United States, standing at over 80 feet (24.4 metres) tall. Its age ranges from 3,000 to 6,000 years.
The Bennett Juniper had previously been determined to be at least 3,000 years old using core samples.
The Bennett Juniper is largely hollow, according to the samples, which makes it challenging to determine its exact age.
Because of this, some ecologists contend that the Bennett Juniper may be older than 6,000 years.
The Bennett Juniper Tree is regarded as the oldest and biggest Juniper tree in the world.
Visitors who want to see the Bennett Juniper need a high clearance vehicle and precise GPS coordinates.
The Bennett Juniper tree, which is situated off Highway 108 close to the Donnell Lake vista, is rooted in a web of Forrest Service Roads.
The Bennett Juniper is named for naturalist Clarence Bennett, who first studied the tree in the 1890s and pushed for having the tree protected and studied.
Current Age : 3,000 to 6,000 years
Location: Stanislaus National Forest, Tuolumne County, California
Species: Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis)
Still Alive: Yes
9. Grizzly Giant
The Grizzly Giant is a Giant Sequoia, which is one of the biggest living trees in the world and is thought to be the oldest living tree in Yosemite National Park. The largest stand of Giant Sequoias in the park, Mariposa Grove, is where you may find the Grizzly Giant in Yosemite Park’s southernmost area.
The Grizzly Giant, ranked as the world’s 25th largest tree, is thought to be between 1900 and 2400 years old. A 34,010 cubic foot volume of wood is the Yosemite Grizzly Giant’s estimated wood volume.
The 92 foot or 30 foot diameter base circumference is extensively buttressed as a result of fire damage and climatic stress.
One of the few noteworthy sequoias outside of Sequoia National Park is The Grizzly Giant, which is found in Yosemite National Park.
The oldest tree in Yosemite is this ancient specimen, which is thought to be 3,000 years old.
Grizzly Giant, despite being the oldest, is only the second largest tree in Yosemite by volume.
34,010 cubic feet (963 m3) is the volume of the Grizzly Giant.
By gigantic redwood standards, this is modest, and the Grizzly Giant is only the 25th largest sequoia in the entire world.
On the advice of naturalist Galen Clark, publisher James M. Hutchings renamed the Grizzled Giant as the Grizzly Giant in 1859.
Current Age:About 3000 years
Location: Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California
10.Washington
The enormous sequoia tree known as Washington was the second-largest tree in the world up until 2003.
With an estimated age of about 2,850 years, Washington is also among the oldest.
A fire brought on by a lightning strike in 2003 damaged a large portion of the formerly gorgeous and enormous tree.
Before park officials realised that Washington’s crown was burning, they let the fire burn out naturally for a number of days.
Washington was approximately 253.7 feet (77.3 metres) tall before the fire, with a basal diameter of 29.9 feet (9.1 metres). Its height was reduced to 229 feet (70 m).
Unfortunately, Washington’s length was once more cut short in 2005 when the last of its crown crumbled.
There are currently only a few live branches towards the top and it is 115 feet (35 m) tall.
Washington is still alive right now in spite of all the devastation.
Washington may live for a few more decades or possibly centuries, said to park officials, as previous sequoias have endured with less leaves.
Age : about 2,850 years
Location: Sierra Nevada, California, USA
Species: Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Still Alive: Yes, but severely damaged