The Oldest Living Tree II – Old Tjikko

Meet the swedish contestant in this search for the oldest living tree in the world, still growing strong on Fulufjället in Dalarna. With the birth of Old Tjikko we are 9.550 years back in time, 7.550 BCE. So was this 5 metre tall Norwegian Spruce around just shortly after the last glacial period ended, when only a few of the 5 million humans who lived on earth had just barely discovered farming? No. But it’s roots were. So Wikipedia declares Old Tjikko the world’s oldest living individual clonal tree. The article is well worth reading, there are also some story seeds or roots which might grow into real stories. And of course the questions around the classification and whether Metuselah or Tjikko is “really” the oldest are pedagogically useful. These questions will be even more intriguing in the third part of this series …