Impact

ANCIENT GREEN IS ALIVE & WELL

By Rachel Sussman. Llareta. (2000+ years old; Atacama Desert, Chile)

Check out the incredible green beauty of the world’s oldest living things. Some, thousands of years old, grow more beautiful as time passes.

RACHEL SUSSMAN

Photographer Rachel Sussman takes portraits of the world's oldest continuously living organisms -- alive for at least 2,000 years.

Llareta, for example are dense tiny flowering evergreen plants that grow in the Puna grasslands of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, the north of Chile and the west of Argentina at between 3,200 and 4,500 metres altitude. They grow super-slowly, at about 1.5 centimeters annually and can live for over 3,000 years.

Many of these ancients are trees, such as Pando. Although it appears to be a grove of many trees, Pando is the clonal colony of a single male aspen in the Fishlake National Forest in south central Utah.

Also known as “Trembling Giant,” this tree has been alive for over 80,000 years. Its underground root system has grown to a mind-boggling mass, with an estimated weight of 6,000,000 kg (6,600 short tons), making it the heaviest known organism.

While most of these organisms are plants, this ancient “club” also includes brain coral found in the Carribbean. Sussman travels the world, often to remote places, from Antarctica to Greenland, to find her subjects. She researches and collaborates with biologists to identify and date them.

Ancient (mostly) green lifeforms live on every continent. They tend to grow very slowly. Greenlandic lichens, for example, grow only one centimeter a century. They are important markers of the history of our planet.

They’ve also served to help shape our our environment. Stromatolites, in Australia, for example, are primeval organisms tied to the oxygenation of the planet and the beginnings of life on Earth.

While they have survived for millennia in some of the world’s most extreme environments, climate change and human encroachment have put many of them in danger. Some of Sussman’s subjects, including an underground forest in Pretoria, South Africa, which lived for over 13,000 years, have recently died.

Sussman holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. She was just named a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Check out her powerful story and photos in this self-narrated video. And watch Sussman’s TED Talk, a dramatic narrative about her adventures, discoveries, and and process.

And check out “The Oldest Living Things in the World,” Sussman’s new book. It includes a collection of 124 photographs, 30 essays, and fascinating infographics -- with forewords by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Carl Zimmer. (University of Chicago Press. 2014).

ARCHANGEL ANCIENT TREE ARCHIVE

While logging and land clearing have taken down an enormous number of trees, it estimated that the majority of standing trees on this planet are dead due largely to the consequences of climate change and pollution.

Of the trees that remain alive, as we saw in Rachel Sussman’s portraits, there are a few that have weathered storms, assaults, and changing conditions for thousands of years. David Milarch, founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, calls them “Champion Trees.” He believes that these trees have superior DNA which has enabled them to survive absolutely everything for thousands of years.

Milarch had a beautiful idea. He figured that if could clone Champion trees, he could replant the dead forests, giving them a much greater chance for survival against current and future environmental threats.

Milarch developed the Archangel initiative to create an “archival living library” of ancient Champion Trees from around the world which can be cloned and propagated. The organization has already successfully cloned and planted swaths of ancient sequoias. Check out this video to learn more.

In recognition of Earth Day and Arbor Day, Archangel has partnered and co-sponsored new ancient planting events around the world in order to spread awareness and build support for the archiving and propagation of old growth trees.

Enter this week’s BN Creative Photo Competition. Our theme this week is Beautiful Green. Deadline is 04.27.14.

Photo Credits:

Photo: By Rachel Sussman. Llareta. (2000+ years old; Atacama Desert, Chile).
Photo: By Rachel Sussman. Llareta. (2000+ years old; Atacama Desert, Chile)
Photo: By Rachel Sussman. Pando, Clonal Colony of Quaking Aspen (80,000 years old; Fishlake, Utah)
Photo: By Rachel Sussman. Welwitschia Mirabilis (2,000 years old; Namib-Naukluft Desert, Namibia)
Photo: by Rachel Sussman. Segole Baobab. (2000 years old; Limpopo Province, South Africa).
Photo: By Rachel Sussman. Underground forest. (13,000 years old - recently deceased; Pretoria, South Africa)
Image: Courtesy of University of Chicago Press. The Oldest Living Things in the World.
Photo: Courtesy of Gizmodo. Worlds largest and oldest trees.
Photo: Courtesy of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Big tree.
Photo by Jamie Francis. Archiving Redwoods.
Photo: Courtesy of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Big tree.
Photo: Courtesy of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Big tree.