The Outside Story
Old Trees
By: Joe Rankin
There’s something in us that can’t help
but be impressed by an old tree. Perhaps
we’re simply in awe of something that has
outlived generations of humans and will
outlive us.
We acknowledge this when we compare
the giant sequoia groves to a cathedral.
When we compile state lists of big old
trees. When we give names like
Methuselah
to
the
longest-lived
specimens.
Most trees are not destined to live long
lives. Ninety percent of the trees in a
forest will never become very big, or very
old. Some will lose the race for sunlight
and food. Others will succumb to insects,
wind, fire, or logging.
It’s also true that all tree species aren’t
created equal when it comes to potential
lifespan. Some species just aren’t built to
become centenarians, explained Kevin
Smith, a plant physiologist with the U.S.
Forest Service’s Northern Research
Station. They have fragile wood or a weak
stem or branch structure; they don’t
invest resources in creating chemicals to
ward off pests or aren’t very good at
walling off wounds before fungi invade
them.
But even beyond a tree’s general
characteristics, there’s the specter of
apoptosis – programmed cell death.
According to Smith, most trees have their
life span encoded in their genes. When
the switch is thrown, the tree will begin to
die. For some species that is measured in
decades. For others, centuries. For a few,
millennia. And just as with humans, some
individuals live longer than others before
the inevitable occurs.
The longer lived tree species of northern
New England tend to be the denizens of
climax forests: hemlock, white cedar,
white oak, red spruce. All of those can live
for hundreds of years. You might think
that the oldest specimens would be found
on the richest soils, where life is good. But
that’s not necessarily so. There are red
spruces growing high on the boulderstrewn slopes of New Hampshire’s White
Mountains that are 400 years old. Some
of the oldest trees in eastern North
America – white cedars with 11 centuries
under their bark – are growing out of the
cliff faces of the Niagara escarpment in
Ontario, not the most hospitable
environment.
Of course it’s difficult to determine a
tree’s capacity for longevity when people
have spent the last few centuries cutting
down the oldest and largest specimens.
And efforts to date preserved specimens
pulled from bogs or lakes will only provide
so much information. However, standing
or recently deceased specimens yield
some clues to which species live longest.
roots. Smith noted that some of the
largest and most enduring organisms in
the world are clonal colonies of aspen.
One of them, named Pando, is estimated
to be 80,000 years old, though most of its
stems are less than 100.
According to the Eastern OldList, an
online database of the oldest confirmed
trees in eastern North America, a white
cedar growing on the Niagara escarpment
lived to the ripe old age of 1,653 before
dying. Another lasted to 1,567. A 1,141year-old specimen is still alive.
If success as a tree means passing along
genes, perhaps age is overrated. “For
some species their goal is simply to
survive and spread. That strategy is
different than being able to exploit a
climax forest environment,” Smith said.
“To me, if we’re looking at the success of
tree species, [short-lived species like]
striped maple, pin cherry, and paper birch
do a great job.”
There’s a baldcypress in a swamp in North
Carolina that’s 1,622 years old, an eastern
red cedar in West Virginia that’s been
dated at 940 years, a black gum in New
Hampshire that’s listed at 679 years, and
an eastern hemlock in Pennsylvania that
started as a seedling 555 years ago. In the
Great Smoky Mountains, there’s a tulip
poplar that’s 509 years old.
Joe Rankin writes about forestry and
nature from his home in central Maine.
The illustration for this column was drawn
by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story is
assigned and edited by Northern
Woodlands magazine and sponsored by
the Wellborn Ecology Fund of New
Hampshire
Charitable
Foundation:
[email protected]
The oldest white oak on the Eastern
OldList is 464, the oldest red oak is 326,
and the oldest white pine is 401. The
oldest tree in the world, according to the
OldList, the Eastern OldList’s parent
database, is an unnamed Great Basin
bristlecone pine growing in California’s
White Mountains – it’s 5,062. It’s no
wonder the bristlecone’s scientific name,
Pinus longaeva, means “ancient pine” in
Latin.
Since new trees can sprout from old root
systems, the numbers get really eye
popping if you consider the age of the
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This article is reprinted with the permission of the Center For Northern Woodlands Education. A not for profit
organization, Northern Woodlands seeks to advance a culture of forest stewardship in the northeast by increasing
understanding of and appreciation for the natural wonders, economic productivity and ecological integrity of the
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