Scientists Find 1,075-Year-Old Tree in Northern Greece, Europe’s Oldest

Scientists have discovered the oldest known living tree in Europe, dating it at more than 1,075 years old. The Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) — a densely branched, slow-growing tree —
Europe’s oldest tree, a Bosnian pine, in Greece.
was found in northern Greece, high in the Pindus Mountains. A team of Swedish, German, and U.S. scientists extracted a core of the tree’s one-meter thick trunk, and counted the rings that mark its annual growth—a dating technique known as dendrochronology. They found the tree started its life in 941. “I am impressed, in the context of Western civilization, all the human history that has surrounded this tree, all the empires ”“ the Byzantine, the Ottoman ”“ all the people living in this region,” said University of Stockholm dendrochronologist Paul Krusic, who led the research. “So many things could have led to its demise. Fortunately, this forest has been basically untouched for over a thousand years.”