Old Tjikko
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Old Tjikko is an approximately -year old
Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very clo ...
, located in the
Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...
province in
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. Old Tjikko originally gained fame as the "world's oldest tree". Old Tjikko is, however, a clonal tree that has regenerated new trunks, branches and roots over millennia rather than an individual tree of great age. Old Tjikko is recognized as the oldest living ''
Picea abies ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, ...
'' and the fourth-oldest known clonal tree. The age of the tree was determined by
carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was ...
of genetically matched plant material collected from under the tree, as
dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...
does not work for clonal trees. The trunk itself is estimated to be only a few centuries old, but the plant has survived for much longer due to a process known as layering (when a branch comes in contact with the ground, it sprouts a new root), or vegetative cloning (when the trunk dies but the root system is still alive, it may sprout a new trunk).


Discovery and details

The root system of Old Tjikko is estimated to be years old, making it the world's oldest known
Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very clo ...
. It stands tall and is located on Fulufjället Mountain of
Dalarna Dalarna (; ), also referred to by the English exonyms Dalecarlia and the Dales, is a (historical province) in central Sweden. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Nor ...
province in Sweden. For millennia, the tree appeared in a stunted shrub formation (also known as a krummholz formation) due to the harsh extremes of the environment in which it lives. During the warming of the 20th century, the tree sprouted into a normal tree formation. The husband and wife who discovered the tree, Leif Kullman (professor of
physical geography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...
at Umeå University), and Lisa Öberg (tree scientist with a doctorate in biology and ecology from Mid Sweden University) attributed this growth spurt to
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
and named the tree "Old Tjikko", after their late dog. The tree has survived for so long due to vegetative cloning. The visible tree is relatively young, but it is part of an older root system that dates back millennia. The trunk of the tree may die and regrow multiple times, but the tree's root system remains intact and in turn sprouts another trunk. The trunk may only live for about six hundred years, and when one trunk dies another eventually grows back in its place. Also, each winter, heavy snow may push the tree's low-lying branches to ground level, where they take root and survive to grow again the next year in a process known as layering. Layering occurs when a tree's branch comes in contact with the earth, and new roots sprout from the contact point. Other trees, such as coast redwoods and western red cedars are known to reproduce by layering. The tree's age was determined by carbon-14 dating of the root system, which found roots dating back to 375, 5,660, 9,000, and 9,550 years before 2008. Carbon dating is not accurate enough to pin down the exact year the tree sprouted from seed; however, given the estimated age, the tree is supposed to have sprouted around 7550 B.C. For comparison, the invention of writing (and thus, the beginning of
recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world h ...
) did not occur until around 4000 B.C. Researchers have found a cluster of around twenty spruce trees in the same area, all over eight millennia old. The estimated age of Old Tjikko is close to the maximum possible for this area, as the last ice age's receding Fenno-Scandian ice sheet only released the Fulufjället Mountain around ten millennia ago. Nature conservancy authorities considered putting a fence around the tree to protect it from possible vandals or trophy hunters. On July 1, 2024, it was reported that the Stockholm-based art studio Goldin+Senneby were building a climate-controlled installation at a new hospital campus in
Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...
, Sweden. The installation houses a clone of Old Tjikko and was created using small twigs cut from Old Tjikko's top branches, which were then grafted onto stems of other spruce trees. This process would thus result in saplings with DNA identical to that of Old Tjikko.


See also

* List of oldest trees * List of individual trees * List of superlative trees in Sweden


References


External links

* *{{Cite web, url=https://tripyoda.com/oldest-trees-in-the-world/, title=10 Oldest Trees in the World, last=Parkar, first=Linda, date=December 8, 2018, website=TripYoda – Travel Guide, access-date=December 7, 2018, archive-date=August 3, 2020, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803113439/https://tripyoda.com/oldest-trees-in-the-world/, url-status=dead
"Old Tjikko"
article at
Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...
, with map and photos Individual spruce trees Tourist attractions in Dalarna County Individual trees in Sweden Älvdalen Municipality