List of Long-living Organisms - Individual Plant Specimens

Individual Plant Specimens

• The 'Sisters olive trees of Noah' in Bcheale in the Batroun District part of Lebanon are some of the oldest living trees on earth aged between 6000-6800 years. They are considered to be the worlds oldest olive trees. They are also believed to be the source of Noah's dove's olive branch.
• A Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) called Prometheus was measured by ring count at 4,862 years old when it was felled in 1964. This is the greatest verified age for any living organism at the time of its felling. Another Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, known as Methuselah, measured by ring count of sample cores is, at 4,842 years old, the oldest known tree in North America, and the oldest known living individual tree in the world.
• Llangernyw Yew, the oldest individual tree in Europe and second or third oldest individual tree in the world. Believed to be aged between 4,000 years and 5,000 years old, this ancient yew (Taxus baccata) is in the churchyard of the village of Llangernyw in North Wales.
• Fortingall Yew, an ancient yew (Taxus baccata) in the churchyard of the village of Fortingall in Perthshire, Scotland; one of the oldest known individual trees in Europe. Various estimates have put its age at between 2000 and 5000 years, although these days it is believed to be at the lower end of this range.
• Fitzroya cupressoides is the species with the second oldest verified age, a specimen in Chile being measured by ring count as 3,622 years old.
• A Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa), the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka is 2,300 years old (planted in 288 BC). It is the oldest known flowering plant and the oldest known living to date human-planted tree in the world.
• A specimen of Lagarostrobos franklinii in Tasmania is thought to be about 2000 years old.
• Numerous Olive trees are purported to be 2000 years old or older. An olive tree in Ano Vouves, Crete, claiming such longevity, has been confirmed on the basis of tree ring analysis.
• Jōmon Sugi, the cryptomeria naturally grown in Yakushima Island, Kagoshima, Japan, more than 2,170 to 7,200 years old.
• Great sugi of Kayano, the cryptomeria deemed planted by humans in Kaga, Ishikawa, Japan, estimated age of 2,300 years in 1928.
• Welwitschia is a monotypic genus of gymnosperm plant, composed solely of the distinct Welwitschia mirabilis. It is the only genus of the family Welwitschiaceae, in the order Welwitschiales, in the division Gnetophyta. The plant is considered a living fossil. Radiocarbon dating has confirmed that there are many individuals which have lived longer than 1000 years, and some are suspected to be older than 2000 years.
• Yareta is a tiny flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to South America, occurring in the Puna grasslands of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, the north of Chile and the west of Argentina at between 3200 and 4500 metres altitude. Many yaretas are over 3,000 years old.