http://waynesword.pa...0601.htm#oldest
Up until the late 1970's, the oldest living thing was thought to be a bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva), living for nearly 5,000 years high in the White Mountains of California and the Snake Range of eastern Nevada. Then, Dr. Frank Vasek of the University of California at Riverside investigated the strange, circular growth patterns of a flowering shrub called creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) in the Mojave Desert. Dr. Vasek proved that each giant ring of shrubs came from its own ancestral shrub that once grew from the center of the ring. The interesting circular growth pattern can be explained by examining sections of creosote bush stumps (stem crowns) at the base of the shrubs.
The original stem crown splits and fragments into sections. As the segments continue to grow outwardly (away from the center) they produce new branches along their outer edge.
Over thousands of years the center wood dies and rots away, leaving a barren area surrounded by a circular ring of shrubs. One of the oldest shrub rings is 50 feet in diameter. It has been estimated that it started from a seed nearly 12,000 years ago. During its lifetime the last major period of glaciation in North America (Wisconsin Glaciation) came to an end, the great Egyptian and Mayan pyramids were built, the first human walked on the moon, routine satellites and manned spaceships orbited the earth...and the shrub is still living.
