13,000 year old yamadori

Bonsai Nut

Nuttier than your average Nut
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An interesting question. I have asked similar questions on the forums before. Are, for example, all Valencia Orange trees really parts of the same whole? Are they all one individual, and if so, is the individual potentially ever-living?
 

rockm

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Oaks tend to produce clonal growth from their roots. It's the way they most successfully reproduce. Clonal growth often produces entire forests of "the same tree." These forests or copses are called "motts."

Southern live oak does this too. My collected escarpment live oak bonsai (a subspecies of southern live oak) always throws three or four very strong root suckers ever summer. I have to remove them or they sap alot of energy from the tree.

I don't think the "tree" noted in this article could be classified as an individual. It is not. Even though clones are the same genetically, a clone that sprouted last year is hardly as old as the parent plant.
 

bonsai barry

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The creosote bush in the Southwest US has been dated at just under 12, 000 years old because of its cloning abilities. Is each specimen that old? Not if you count the rings.

For what its worth: I work as a naturalist in a giant sequoia grove. At one point years ago, we used to claim that the Sequoiadendron giagantium was the world's largest living thing. Since then we have been told to modify that statement since groves of aspen trees are rhizome clones, each tree sprouting from a single root source. So I guess the National Park Service would call this oak a singular tree.

Of course it really doesn't matter which tree is the oldest, the tallest, or the largest. They're all pretty cool!
 

Attila Soos

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Nice!
Quercus palmeri - I never heard of it before. These trees grow very close to the site of the last GSBF convention.

These scrub oaks are an interesting group, there are so many variations that I can never exactly identify them on my hikes. To add to the confusion, they also hybridize amongst themselves.
The fact that most of these shrubs carry acorn, but the Quercus palmeri does not, is very strange indeed.
 

dcartier

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The case of extremely old yamadori within minutes of Canada's biggest city.

Linked below is an article about the discovery of the oldest known intact forest in eastern North America. it includes accounts of trees that are hundreds of years old and only a mere 4 inches high!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1170/is_n4_v24/ai_16094014/?tag=content;col1

I was fascinated to discover that I lived minutes from some of these amazing trees.

.. and no, I have not tried to collect any of these (and have no plans to). :(

Dennis
 

Klytus

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I wonder if we are likely to see the acornless oak! sold like the Wollemi pine.

Your chance to own a curio of nature,before Stonehenge,the Pyramids of Giza or even the Indus River Valley Culture this remarkable bush was older than mostly all of the oldest trees extant today.

Beware of e-bay impostors and buy only from licensed stockists.
 
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Linked below is an article about the discovery of the oldest known intact forest in eastern North America. it includes accounts of trees that are hundreds of years old and only a mere 4 inches high!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1170/is_n4_v24/ai_16094014/?tag=content;col1

I was fascinated to discover that I lived minutes from some of these amazing trees.

.. and no, I have not tried to collect any of these (and have no plans to). :(

Dennis

a quote from the article you linked...

"Other threats include land development and collecting for bonsai plants, the miniature trees sold as house decorations."


Lovely reputation we are getting.....





Will
 

Attila Soos

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Linked below is an article about the discovery of the oldest known intact forest in eastern North America. it includes accounts of trees that are hundreds of years old and only a mere 4 inches high!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1170/is_n4_v24/ai_16094014/?tag=content;col1

I was fascinated to discover that I lived minutes from some of these amazing trees.

.. and no, I have not tried to collect any of these (and have no plans to). :(

Dennis


Cliff forests! A bonsaist's heaven. You'd have to tie me down and put me in a straight-jacket, so that I resist temptation.:)
(I instantly imagine Robert Steven hanging from a rope, upside-down, holding on to a pemphis protruding over an ocean cliff, surrounded by flying albatross - best feeling in the world.)
 
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