Wednesday 26 October 2011

Reconsidering that Xmas Tree

I'm a little startled. The traditional advice with Christmas trees is that you use them like cut flowers - keep them well watered and then throw them out after Christmas. About six weeks after the needles fall off, that is.

 And yet I read of the oldest living tree - which is a Norway Spruce (albeit one living in Sweden). It is nearly 10 millennia old.

Suddenly I feel in awe, and just a little guilty. Maybe we'll go for pot-grown this year. Who'd have thought, by putting up Christmas decorations, you'd be shortening the life of another organism by 10,000 years?

And let's be honest - you'll never get much tinsel on that.

(Hat tip to Progressive Involvement for the link)

5 comments :

  1. 10,000 years old? Impossible! It must have been created with an apparent 4,000 year age. ;-)

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  2. Quite right, Peter. In the same way that Adam himself was of mature age when created, this tree would have been brought into existence with 4,000 pre-existing rings. After all, the alternative would be that Adam would only have been surrounded by the saplings from 3-day-old plants - and then what would he have to eat?

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  3. The link indicates that the tree's age was determined by carbon dating of the roots, and I am sure the good Revd will tell us how inaccurate that can be! Should we sacrifice the tree to count the rings and prove the point?

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  4. I'm pretty sure Drayton would not approve of sacrificing the tree. Besides, who would Christmas Trees be sacrificed to - except Mammon?

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