World's Oldest Tree: 10,000-Year-Old Spruce in Sweden

Professor Leif Kullmann of Umeaa University, Sweden, and colleagues have discovered the world’s oldest living tree: a 10,000 year-old spruce in central Sweden:

Researchers had discovered a spruce with genetic material dating back 9,550 years in the Fulu mountain in Dalarna, according to Leif Kullmann, a professor of Physical Geography at the university in northwestern Sweden.

That would mean it had taken root in roughly the year 7,542 BC.

"It was a big surprise because we thought until (now) that this kind of spruce grew much later in those regions," he said.

Scientists had previously believed the world’s oldest trees were 4,000 to 5,000 year-old pine trees found in North America.

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Previously on Neatorama: 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World