The oldest tree in Europe is found in Tenerife, in the Teide. His age: 1,481 years. A study by a group of researchers from the University Institute of Sustainable Forest Management of the University of Valladolid, the Rey Juan Carlos University and the Teide National Park, published in the scientific journal Ecology of the Ecological Society of America, has identified a Canarian cedar (Juniperus cedrus) of prodigious antiquity. «The radiocarbon technique has been applied to this specimen and it has turned out that it is 1,481 years old, so it is 400 years older than the tree that until now was considered the oldest, a pine in Greece. popularly nicknamed Adonis,” the newspaper reported on Thursday. Council of Tenerife.
«Two years ago, in 2019, the Teide National Park identified a specimen known as The patriarch as the oldest tree in the protected natural space; However, this new study corroborates that there are even older specimens”, indicated the Councilor for Natural Environment Management and Security of the Cabildo, Isabel García. «The National Park is a large scientific laboratory in constant operation, and proof of this is this important analysis that delves into the presence of Canarian cedars on the peaks of the Island at a time when the vegetation could have been very different from the current,” he added. Specific, The Patriarch is also a cedar, although 1,118 years oldaccording to the data that became known after its discovery.
From the Cabildo they detailed that the access to these populations of Juniperus cedrus, a species native to the Canary Islands, “is quite difficult since they live perched on crags of volcanic rock that are only accessible with advanced climbing techniques.” And they added that the scientists overcame this challenge “thanks to the collaboration of local climbers, experts in conservation work in cliff areas and co-authors of the work.”
Until now the longest-lived European tree was a pine from Greece called ‘Adonis’
A species that resurfaces
Wolfredo Wilpret, Emeritus Professor of Botany at the University of La Laguna and authority in this field, recalled yesterday that the cedar was close to extinction. The main reason was an important exploitation due to the fact that a “very noble and not putrecible” wood was obtained from it. The situation changed with the declaration of the Teide National Park in 1954, since there “it was already prohibited to carry out any extractive activity”. Wilpret was unaware this Thursday of the details of the study carried out around the now-located specimen, but he did highlight that the cedar is endemic to the Canary Islands and that it belongs to the same family as junipers.
The island institution announced yesterday that the researchers found that several of the specimens studied were over 1,000 years old and that one of them was even 1,481 years old. “Several of the trees we have found are well over 1,000 years old, and we have only looked at a small part of what is there, which makes us think that we are only scratching the surface of what could be one of the most important pockets of trees. old people on the planet”, pointed out the researcher Gabriel Sangüesa, one of the authors of the work.
These ancient trees have been able to overcome five volcanic eruptions in the last 500 years, continuous rockfalls and develop in an arid and cold climate, with hardly any soil. “The trees thrive much better on the plain, but to persist they have had to take refuge in the cliffs, since the action of man has been much more devastating than those of volcanoes,” said José Miguel Olano, also a researcher at the University of Valladolid in Soria and co-author of the work.
“These trees are not only old, but also, together with the conservation and protection measures derived from the creation of the National Park, they are recolonizing the plains from which they were expelled. The fruit of the cedars is dispersed by the action of birdsTherefore, the specimens that survived in the most rugged areas are making it possible to recover the park’s ancient cedar forests,” said José Luis Martín Esquivel, co-author of the study and conservator biologist at Teide National Park.
