Old Tjikko
Clonal Norway spruce, among the world's oldest known trees
Old Tjikko is a Norway spruce (Picea abies) in Sweden’s Dalarna province, estimated to be about 9,568 years old. It first became famous as the “world’s oldest tree,” but it’s actually a clonal tree—meaning it has regrown new trunks, branches, and roots over thousands of years, rather than being a single ancient individual. It holds the record as the oldest living Norway spruce and ranks as the fourth-oldest known clonal tree.
Because clonal trees can’t be dated by counting growth rings, scientists used carbon-14 dating on genetically matched plant material collected from beneath the tree. The visible trunk is only a few centuries old, but the plant has survived so long through two processes: layering (when a branch touches the ground and sprouts new roots) and vegetative cloning (when the trunk dies but the root system lives on and sends up a new trunk).
The root system is estimated to be 9,568 years old, making Old Tjikko the world’s oldest known Norway spruce. It stands 5 meters (16 feet) tall on Fulufjället Mountain in Dalarna. For most of its life, it grew as a stunted shrub (a krummholz formation) due to harsh environmental conditions. During the 20th century’s warming, it grew into a normal tree. The discoverers—Leif Kullman, a professor of physical geography at Umeå University, and Lisa Öberg, a tree scientist with a doctorate from Mid Sweden University—attributed this growth spurt to global warming and named the tree after their late dog.
The tree’s longevity comes from vegetative cloning. The visible trunk may die and regrow multiple times—each trunk lives about six hundred years—while the root system remains intact and sprouts a new trunk. Heavy snow also pushes low branches to the ground, where they take root through layering, a method also used by coast redwoods and western red cedars. Carbon-14 dating of the root system found roots dating to 375, 5,660, 9,000, and 9,550 years before 2008. Though carbon dating can’t pinpoint the exact year it sprouted, the tree is thought to have started growing around 7550 B.C.—before the invention of writing around 4000 B.C. Researchers have found a cluster of about twenty spruce trees in the same area, all over eight thousand years old.
Quick Facts
- Species
- Norway spruce
- Binomial
- Picea abies
- Location
- Fulufjället mountain, Dalarna, Sweden
- Height
- 5 m
- Seeded
- c. 7550 BC
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The tree has survived so long due to vegetative cloning. The visible trunk is relatively young, but it is part of an older root system that dates back millennia. The trunk may die and regrow multiple times; each trunk may live only about six hundred years. Additionally, heavy snow pushes low-lying branches to ground level, where they take root and survive through a process called layering. The tree's age was determined by carbon-14 dating of the root system, which found roots dating back to 375, 5,660, 9,000, and 9,550 years before 2008. Carbon dating is not accurate enough to pin down the exact year the tree sprouted from seed, but it is supposed to have sprouted around 7550 B.C.
Reader's Guide
Old Tjikko's significance lies in its demonstration of clonal longevity, challenging conventional notions of what constitutes an individual tree. Its age was determined through carbon dating of genetically matched plant material, as dendrochronology does not work for clonal trees. The tree's survival through vegetative cloning and layering illustrates how a single genetic individual can persist for millennia despite harsh climates. The discovery also highlighted the impact of 20th-century warming, as the tree transformed from a stunted shrub into a normal tree form. Researchers found a cluster of around twenty spruce trees in the same area, all over eight millennia old. The estimated age of Old Tjikko is close to the maximum possible for this area, as the last ice age's receding Fenno-Scandian ice sheet only released Fulufjället Mountain around ten millennia ago. In 2024, a Stockholm-based art studio built a climate-controlled installation housing a clone of Old Tjikko, created from twigs grafted onto other spruce stems, preserving its DNA.
Did You Know?
- Old Tjikko is named after the discoverers' late dog.
- The trunk itself is estimated to be only a few centuries old, while the root system is about 9,568 years old.
- In 2024, a clone of Old Tjikko was created using twigs from its top branches grafted onto other spruce stems.
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