An interesting article I read today on ancient oaks. Generations upon generations have seen these grow. ScienceAlert: An Ancient Oak in Italy Just Turned Out to Be Nearly 1,000 Years Old. An Ancient Oak in Italy Just Turned Out to Be Nearly 1,000 Years Old
I wonder how much chance of making the final push to 1,000 it'll have? I fear a losing battle in a rapidly worsening climate.
Talking about oaks, I visited an arboretum yesterday, and there's an old Quercus robur that is younger than those you mentioned, probably "only" over 200 yrs old, but quite spectacular. No big crutches to maintain some branches, but a few cables, which you can't see on the photo :
It says the oak is growing in the mountains of Aspromonte National Park. That's in the extreme south of Italy. That place has an interesting climate. It's similar to southern California except is not as dry during the summer, and the humidity is not as low as it in summer in the California interior mountain ranges. Looking at the pictures of the forest, it reminds me of a three-way mix between southern California (hot dry grassy scrubland), the denser pine forest growth of the interior California mountain range, and the more lush green forest in southeastern Europe. The oaks there are not as big as they are in some other places, but it looks like a very beautiful place. Here's a picture: Aspromonte Park oaks another picture: https://www.parks.it/tmpFoto/41671_434_PNASP.jpeg Maesano falls To try to draw a comparison for those in the U.S., it's as warm and sunny as New Mexico but seems to have the more green tree growth and water streams of a place further north in Colorado. So there is no place in the U.S. really comparable to it. Maybe I'd say that if the more interior mountains of San Diego county (like Palomar Mountain State Park, in the far south of California) had more rain, that is what they would look like. At higher elevations, the forest can be much greener, cooler, almost alpine, and somewhere in between a temperate climate and a higher elevation forest in Hawaii. For example, around Gambarie or Vivaio Forestale. (Though the oaks do not dominate in the greenest coolest areas) The article says the type of oak that grows there is Sessile oak (Quercus petraea). Here's another article that shows a picture of the old oak tree: In Aspromonte for Demetra, the oldest oak tree in Europe | Calabria Region Official Tourism website It's estimated to be 935 years old, although the tree is really not that big and looks like it's just clinging to life.
