At the top of a very nondescript hill out in Riverside County, CA, you'll find something pretty amazing. I can't tell you exactly where it is because the scientists that discovered it are going to do their best to protect this find, though they recognize that they are fighting a losing battle. According to UC Davis researchers, they have found what they believe to be one of the oldest living plants on the planet that is registering at 13,000 years old.
This plant is a wide-spanning thicket of stunted, gnarled oak trees wedged between a pile of boulders. To the untrained eye, it would appear to be of no consequence. The entire grove of Palmer's oak trunks is one plant with none of its stems rising more than a few feet tall. The plant is actually growing within the boulder pile, which has offered the needed protection in order for the plant to live it's extremely long life.
About a decade ago, while conducting a routine survey of plant life in the area, Michael May and his team came across this very unique plant. Their first clues as to what this plant really was came when they discovered that this apparent grove of trees was producing no fertile acorns, yet was seeming to continue to grow in size somehow. They then noticed that the trees were very similar in appearance, almost as if they were clones. This led them to discover that this is a single plant, growing in an oval 25 yards long and 8 yards wide. Researchers have found many plants that clone themselves, but very few that are this old.
Researchers have named the plant the Jurupa Oak after the mountain range in which it was found. They even believe that the plant has survived numerous fires over the years, with new sprouts springing to life after each fire.
