Question: How old is the world's oldest plant?

Answer: 43,600 years by carbon dating.

Botanists say this 1.2 km plant grows in Tasmania.

Reference: Science, Vol. 277, p. 483 (25 July 1997).

Bob Hiemstra (drroberto@earthlink.net) writes "Prof. Allan A. Schoenherr, a professor of Ecology, suggests that the creosote bush may also be in the running for the world's oldest plant. In his book A Natural History of California (University of California Press; 1992; 772 pp.; $50), he states that if botanists are correct, the creosote bush grows concentrically and may have more than a few members in California's Mojave Desert that have been creeping into ever larger circles for millions of years." (August 17, 1998)

Editor's Comment: Does anyone know a way to check this out by Carbon Dating or other means?

Here are some relevant comments from a panel discussion called The Life and Times of Life and Time that aired on the BBC in London on Thursday, October 22, 1998 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/horizon/lifetim etrans.shtml)...

Prof. Leonard Haflick (University of California San Francisco): There's a popular myth that redwood trees are 3,000 or 4,000 years old and bristle cone pines perhaps even older. The fact of the matter is that those trees are not as old as we have been taught to believe they are. Those trees are no older than 30 or 40 years. The bark of course is dead and the next layers that you penetrate are the living cambium layers, but as you penetrate further into the trunk that tissue is dead too. The oldest living cells in a redwood tree or a bristle cone pine are found in the needles, and they're no older than about 30 years, so that all viewers who are older than 30 years are older than the oldest redwood tree! The tree has learned how to hold on to its dead cells for architectural purposes. You and I have not learned how to do that and consequently don't end up being as big as a redwood tree. We have going on in our bodies what's called cell turnover. We have cells dividing, some classes dividing every day, others dividing every week, and still others dividing every month or two. With the exception of your neurons and your muscle cells, the cells that were present in your body 10 or 15 or 20 years ago are no longer there, so that you are literally not the same person you were ten years ago. As a matter of fact when you celebrate your birthday you should only be celebrating the birthday of your neurons and muscle cells which have been around since birth. Everything else is new. The question of what is an individual is very difficult to determine. In the case of replication of plants, for example, through root systems where a single tree or bush gives rise to more trees or bushes, all attached to the original parent. From an original single bush that sends out roots underground, the creosote bush forms a ring. Ultimately the bush in the center dies and you end up with a very wide ring.

Erick Burres (California Department of Fish and Game): King Clone at the time it was dated was the oldest living plant complex known at the time. It was dated at 11,700 years old. The plants that make up that ring aren't 11,000 years old, but that ring itself. To me, that's where the significance lies, and it was able to persist so long and maintain that form, and the integrity of that ring is still there.

Leonard Hayflick: We all understand that our lives are finite, but there is an aspect of our bodies that is indeed immortal, and that is either our sperm or egg cells which go on to provide a new generation. Therefore, you and I (and our viewers) represent the leading edge of an immortal lineage of cells that have been in existence for many millions, or tens of millions of years.