In the southern Chilean forest, a giant tree is believed to be the oldest tree in the world and is about to replace Methuselah, a 4,850-year-old Great Basin bristlecone pine in California. Known as the “Great Grandfather,” this Fitzroya cupressoides, a type of cypress tree, has a trunk measuring 4 meters (13 feet) in diameter and 28 meters tall. This tree is considered a “survivor” and is on the brink of being recognized as the oldest tree in the world. It is also believed to contain scientific information that could shed light on how the planet has adapted to climatic changes.
Antonio Lara, a researcher at Austral University and Chile’s center for climate science and resilience, is part of the team measuring the tree’s age. The Great Grandfather lies on the edge of a ravine in a forest in the southern Los Rios region, 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of the capital Santiago. Due to its growing fame, the national forestry body has had to increase the number of park rangers and restrict access to protect the Great Grandfather. The exact location of Methuselah is kept a secret.
The Patagonian cypress, also known as the Great Grandfather, is the largest tree species in South America. It lives alongside other tree species, such as coigue, plum pine, and tepa, Darwin’s frogs, lizards, and birds such as the chucao tapaculo and Chilean hawk. For centuries, its thick trunk has been chopped down to build houses and ships, and it was heavily logged during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Park warden Anibal Henriquez discovered the tree while patrolling the forest in 1972. He died of a heart attack 16 years later while patrolling the same forest on horseback. His daughter Nancy Henriquez, herself a park warden, revealed that he did not want people and tourists to know where it was because he knew it was very valuable. Henrique’s nephew, Jonathan Barichivich, grew up playing amongst the Fitzroya and is now one of the scientists studying the species.
In 2020, Barichivich and Lara managed to extract a sample from the Great Grandfather using the longest manual drill that exists, but they did not reach the center. They estimated that their sample was 2,400 years old and used a predictive model to calculate the full age of the tree. Barichivich said that “80 percent of the possible trajectories show the tree would be 5,000 years old.” He hopes to soon publish the results. The study has created excitement within the scientific community given that dendrochronology is less accurate when it comes to older trees as many have a rotten core.
The Great Grandfather is not just about entering the record books. It is a font of valuable information. “There are many other reasons that give value and sense to this tree and the need to protect it,” said Lara. The ancient trees have genes and a very special history because they are symbols of resistance and adaptation. They are nature’s best athletes,” said Barichivich. Those pages show dry and rainy years, depending on the width of the rings. Fires and earthquakes are also recorded in those rings, such as the most powerful tremor in history that hit this area in 1960. The Great Grandfather is also considered a time capsule that can offer a window into the past. “If these trees disappear, so too will disappear an important key about how life adapts to changes on the planet,” said Barichivich.
