Size Belies Seedlings' Roots
Botanic Garden Shows Off 3-Inch Cuttings From Ancient Trees
Wednesday, August 20, 2003; Page B01
The potted weeping figs slumped next to the trumpet-shaped peace lilies in the West Gallery of the U.S. Botanic Garden at the foot of Capitol Hill yesterday, but the plants capturing the gaze of television cameras were the tiniest in the room.
Two red-clay pots sat on a table draped with green cloth, each container filled with dark, rocky soil from which peeked a single seedling about three inches tall. The pair of bristlecone pines resembled little more than blue-green, spiky-haired dandelions, a ball of thin baby needles atop toothpick-size stems.
But size isn't everything. These "infants" have the family name -- and the family genes -- on their side. Their parents do not grow into the biggest trees in the world, but they have staying power. One of the seedlings was grown from the world's largest bristlecone pine, a 1,500-year-old tree dubbed the Patriarch, with a girth of 39 feet and roughly 36 feet tall. But the other infant comes from a much older tree. Much older.
"Stonehenge was just being thought of," said Jared Milarch, 24, searching for something to put the age of the second seedling's parent in perspective. Only ancient history -- the building of the Egyptian pyramids -- is an adequate reference. The seedling comes from the oldest known living tree on Earth, a 4,768-year-old bristlecone pine in Inyo National Forest near Bishop, Calif., not far from the Nevada border.
The tree, called Methuselah, thrives in a location that has been kept secret to protect it from vandalism and soil erosion from foot traffic. But Milarch was recently allowed by the U.S. Forest Service to grow a seedling of Methuselah. Milarch, co-founder of the Champion Tree Project, which sponsored the effort with the nonprofit National Tree Trust, donated the offspring to the U.S. Botanic Garden yesterday in a ceremony.
Milarch, who runs a Michigan nursery, said he hopes the seedlings provide the public with a close-up glimpse of ancient trees, and that science can begin to unlock some of the mysteries of their longevity. "How in the heck does something get to be 4,760 years old?" Milarch asked. "If we make it to 100, we're doing real good."
In October, Milarch and a team traveled to California and took dozens of pine cones attached to Methuselah and Patriarch, which is also in Inyo National Forest. Seeds from those cones were planted and grown in laboratories. Milarch, along with his father, David, attempted to make a genetic clone of Methuselah from its branch tips, but that effort failed.
"Basically, because it hasn't been done before, our calculations were a little off," Milarch said of the technique known as tissue culture. Later this year, Milarch hopes to return to Methuselah and try the cloning again.
After yesterday's ceremony, the two seedlings were set to take an air-conditioned ride in a cargo van to their new temporary home in Anacostia, at a greenhouse inside a botanic garden production facility. There they will grow under watchful eyes in the cool conditions they crave for roughly eight months before being brought back to the conservatory on Maryland Avenue SW for public display.
"They're like babies," said Holly Shimizu, the botanic garden's executive director. "They're not ready to go off and be tough and sturdy yet."
Though the Anacostia production facility is not open to the public, those interested in seeing the seedlings have a chance during seasonal open-house tours. More information is available at www.usbg.gov, or by calling 202-225-8333.
http://www.nationaltreetrust.org.
http://www.championtrees.org
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah
http://www.usbg.gov/contact-us/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=10466
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6573277.htm
