December 22, 2007: Pub in a Tree

[tulzscha]

Six thousand years old? That would make it the oldest living organism on the planet, considering bristlecone pines (the acknowledged record-holders) live to ~5,000.

Aha! after a little research (wikipedia) we find that:

Some are reputed to be many thousands of years old, though as the wood does not produce annual growth rings, this is impossible to verify; few botanists give any credence to these claims of extreme age, with current evidence suggesting they rarely exceed 400 years old.

Also, how do you radiocarbon-date something that's still alive? Traditionally, it has to die first to stop taking in carbon-14, then you can calculate based on the remaining amount of the radioactive...

They're embellishing to snare tourists, aren't they? :P