Enduring the ages: The story of tenacious Old Tjikko, the world’s oldest tree.
Hidden amongst the remote wilderness of Fulufjället National Park in Sweden grows the world’s oldest known living tree – Old Tjikko. With an estimated root system over 9,550 years old, this ancient Norway spruce (Picea abies) has persevered through the rise and fall of civilizations, generations of severe Scandinavian winters, and even an erupting volcano.
Old Tjikko first took root in the harsh tundra shortly after the last ice age ended, and vast glaciers began rapidly retreating from Scandinavia approximately 11,500 years ago. As the mile-high sheets of ice melted away, seedlings like Old Tjikko’s ancestor were finally able to take advantage of the exposed bare ground and relatively mild summers. Though early growth was excruciatingly slow in the frigid open landscape, the seedling benefited from lack of competition and gradually established itself. Its roots likely first penetrated the thin soil less than a decade after the crushing weight of glaciers disappeared from the land.
For nearly all its many millennia of life since then, Old Tjikko persisted solely underground as a root system, only occasionally sprouting a stem and sparse crown. At times, fires, drought, insect attacks or extreme winters likely killed its aboveground portion, but the extensive root network remained intact. Around 600-800 years ago, the current trunk and canopy began growing upwards, likely due to a period of favorable climate.
See also: Protecting the Joshua Tree in California.
This trunk grows from the original root network that has remained alive since shortly after the last glaciers retreated. By cloning and regenerating new trunks from the same rootstock, Old Tjikko has attained great age even as individual stems have come and gone. Today, Old Tjikko reaches just under 16 feet tall – rather typical for a juvenile Norway Spruce, but tiny compared to many of its brethren that mature at heights between 100 to 130 feet.
Old Tjikko managed to survive throughout dozens of generations of Sami reindeer herders migrating through the area, the Black Death wiping out 60% of Scandinavia’s population in the 1300s, and even the climate impacts of the volcano Laki erupting in Iceland in 1783 – the deadliest volcanic eruption in modern European history. While empires rose and fell, Old Tjikko has endured.
The remarkable longevity of Old Tjikko was discovered by geologist Dr. Leif Kullman in 2008. Struck by an odd-looking branch of a spruce stem poking up through the peat in Fulufjället, Dr. Kullman excavated and carbon-dated the tree’s 75-foot-long root system to confirm his suspicion of great age. The tree was likely named “Old Tjikko” after Dr. Kullman’s deceased dog. Though Dr. Kullman has chosen to protect the tree’s precise location, a few small tours do bring visitors to see Sweden’s ancient, venerable elder each summer.
Standing beneath Old Tjikko’s sparse canopy of prickly needles, one cannot help but be awed at its incredible timeline spanning nearly all modern human civilization. Much of recorded human history has unfolded within this tree’s lifetime – Stonehenge was erected, Egyptian pharaohs reigned and fell, philosophers like Socrates and Plato pondered, and empires like the Romans and Ottomans ascended to greatness only to crumble.
And throughout all of time’s relentless current, Old Tjikko has persisted – its tender roots penetrating the thin soil each spring, tiny cones still releasing winged seeds to be scattered by the mountain winds after every long winter. Truly an embodiment of perseverance, Old Tjikko serves as a humbling reminder that our human perspective spans but a tiny fraction of history’s arc. Much may come and go on the surface, but the cycles of nature endure well beyond the petty concerns of mankind.
A fascinating story