Trees have it kind of tough these days. Not only are we hacking them down at unprecedented rates all over the world, but they're self-immolating in protest, too. And bugs are eating them and they're drying up and finding all sorts of new ways to die. It's kind of a downer.

This one tree, though--this guy won't quit. It is a god among trees. It refuses to die. Maybe you've been impressed by those California redwoods--you know, the ones that are a millennium or so old and that you can drive your car through. But those behemoths are just whippersnappers compared to this tree. Researchers just found the conifer in Sweden. Through carbon dating, they've determined that it first took root about 10,000 years ago.

That's at the end of the last Ice Age. That's nothing to shake a twig at.

You might expect such a tree to have an unprecedented radius. After all, those redwoods are big enough to live in--surely a specimen ten times their age would be ten times as big. Unfortunately, the conifer is no monster tree. It's only 13 feet tall. At first glance, it actually just appears to be a scraggly Christmas tree. You wouldn't think twice if you drove by it. It's just a Norway spruce hanging out by itself in Sweden's Dalama Province. No big deal.

The roots, however, are what's special. The trunk itself isn't actually that old. They die every 600 years or so like we expect trees to. But the whole tree doesn't die when the stem does. The roots keep on living--the same, original roots--and spring up a brand new trunk. The tree essentially clones itself, redoing what it's always done, keeping on keeping on. It's probably been through about 16 trunks since it first sprouted from a pinecone. 

Because the trunk hasn't lived as long as the roots, scientists can't measure the trees age by traditional methods. Most old trees can be dated by counting their rings--they're organized enough to grow a new one every year, so it's easy to figure out their age with a little arithmetic. The Norway spruce needs some heavier science, though. Scientists took samples of the tree's roots and carbon dated them. The results mean the tree was one of the first to grow in Scandinavia after it thawed from the Ice Age. Turns out trees are much quicker to repopulate a devastated area than scientists had previously thought--it didn't take long for this one to sprout after the ice melted. Not bad, trees. Let's hope you can take what we're throwing at you in the here and now.