Plants of antiquity. The oldest plants on planet earth. Why do some plants live in groups?
Plants are an important and ancient link in the history of our planet. The first plants witnessed significant climate changes; they existed long before the appearance of man himself.
Plants are unique; they carry many functions to support life on Earth:
- accumulate huge reserves of valuable organic matter and chemical energy,
- release oxygen, protect against ultraviolet radiation,
- reduce the amount carbon dioxide,
- take part in the cycle of mineral and organic substances,
- plants directly influence climate and temperature,
- vegetation participates in soil formation, prevents erosion,
- maintain water regime.
The primary source of oxygen on our planet is blue-green algae. These are bacteria that, along with higher plants, have the ability to photosynthesize; they outlived all their ancestors and existed when no one else existed. They are found everywhere: in fresh water bodies, in salty seas, on land, and they feel great even in the most extreme conditions.
The most ancient foliage plants on earth, Selaginella is recognized, the history of which dates back about hundreds of millions of years. The "carpet fern" reproduces by spores and is the only representative of the club mosses, an ancient group of plants common before our era. These plants are up to 10 cm in height and resemble ferns and mosses in appearance. They are widely used in home floriculture for their interesting appearance.
Ginkgo is a relict plant, many call it a “living fossil.” This oldest species gymnosperms have been preserved since the Ice Age. In their natural habitat, these trees grow up to 40 meters with a trunk diameter of up to 4 m. The life period is about 2000 thousand years. This plant has unique healing properties: the leaves contain many biologically active compounds (acids, vitamins, oils, minerals). They actively influence the human body and have a healing effect.
The oldest living plant on Earth is the “old Tikko” tree. According to scientists, the age of the tree is more than 9550 thousand years. "Old Tikko" is ordinary, it has the status of the oldest today existing tree. A spruce tree grows in the province of Dalarna in Fulufjellet National Park, Sweden. Scientists have determined that the tree was preserved thanks to the process of “cloning”, with an old root system, the tree trunk is only 600 years old.
Another ancient spruce grows in Härjedalen, Sweden and is called “Old Rasmus”. The age of this plant is about 9500 thousand years.
The oldest coniferous tree considered the "Patriarch of the Forest" that grows in Brazil. Its approximate age is about 3000 thousand years. Now it is under protection, because... grows in an area of active felling.
The oldest ficus grows in Sri Lanka. Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was planted in 288 BC. For all Buddhists of the world, this tree is sacred and is a place of pilgrimage, because the tree is believed to have been grown from a cutting planted by the Buddha.
The oldest olive "tree of Cormac" grows on the island of Sardinia in Italy. The age of this plant is about 3000 years.
A plant that has been listed in the Guinness Book for its trunk circumference of more than 60 meters, the “Hundred Horse Chestnut” is 3,000 years old. It grows in Sicily.
Fitzroya cypress is an ancient representative of the Fitzroy genus, whose age is 2600 thousand years. Previously, this species was distributed in South America and Patagonia. The current representative of the genus grows in the Argentine National Park. The tree is 55 meters high and has a trunk diameter of 2.5 meters. Its age is 2600 thousand years.
The most tall plant is a General Sherman tree, 85 meters high, living in a California national park. Its age is more than 2,500 years, and its mass is about 2,000 thousand tons.
Unfortunately, many ancient plants have not survived to the present day; many did not survive due to natural causes. Some of them were cut down for safety reasons, and many were poached.
But thanks to the surviving centenarians, we can learn the history of the development of the Earth, trace how living conditions on our planet changed.
Plants are an important and ancient link in the history of our planet. The first plants witnessed significant climate changes; they existed long before the appearance of man himself.
Plants are unique; they carry many functions to support life on Earth:
- accumulate huge reserves of valuable organic matter and chemical energy,
- release oxygen, protect against ultraviolet radiation,
- reduce the amount of carbon dioxide,
- take part in the cycle of mineral and organic substances,
- plants directly influence climate and temperature,
- vegetation participates in soil formation, prevents erosion,
- maintain water regime.
The primary source of oxygen on our planet is blue-green algae. These are bacteria that, along with higher plants, have the ability to photosynthesize; they outlived all their ancestors and existed when no one else existed. They are found everywhere: in fresh water bodies, in salty seas, on land, and they feel great even in the most extreme conditions.
The most ancient deciduous plants on earth are Selaginella, whose history of existence goes back about hundreds of millions of years. The "carpet fern" reproduces by spores and is the only representative of the club mosses, an ancient group of plants common before our era. These plants are up to 10 cm in height and resemble ferns and mosses in appearance. They are widely used in home floriculture for their interesting appearance.
Ginkgo is a relict plant, many call it a “living fossil.” This ancient type of gymnosperm has been preserved since the Ice Age. In their natural habitat, these trees grow up to 40 meters with a trunk diameter of up to 4 m. The life period is about 2000 thousand years. This plant has unique healing properties: the leaves contain many biologically active compounds (acids, vitamins, oils, minerals). They actively influence the human body and have a healing effect.
The oldest living plant on Earth is the “old Tikko” tree. According to scientists, the age of the tree is more than 9550 thousand years. “Old Tikko” is a common spruce, it has the status of the oldest existing tree. A spruce tree grows in the province of Dalarna in Fulufjellet National Park, Sweden. Scientists have determined that the tree was preserved thanks to the process of “cloning”, with an old root system, the tree trunk is only 600 years old.
Another ancient spruce grows in Härjedalen, Sweden and is called “Old Rasmus”. The age of this plant is about 9500 thousand years.
The oldest non-coniferous tree is considered to be the “Patriarch of the Forest”, which grows in Brazil. Its approximate age is about 3000 thousand years. Now it is under protection, because... grows in an area of active felling.
The oldest ficus grows in Sri Lanka. Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi was planted in 288 BC. For all Buddhists of the world, this tree is sacred and is a place of pilgrimage, because the tree is believed to have been grown from a cutting planted by the Buddha.
The oldest olive "tree of Cormac" grows on the island of Sardinia in Italy. The age of this plant is about 3000 years.
A plant that has been listed in the Guinness Book for its trunk circumference of more than 60 meters, the “Hundred Horse Chestnut” is 3,000 years old. It grows in Sicily.
Fitzroya cypress is an ancient representative of the Fitzroy genus, whose age is 2600 thousand years. Previously, this species was distributed in South America and Patagonia. The current representative of the genus grows in the Argentine National Park. The tree is 55 meters high and has a trunk diameter of 2.5 meters. Its age is 2600 thousand years.
The tallest plant is the General Sherman tree, 85 meters high, living in a California national park. Its age is more than 2,500 years, and its mass is about 2,000 thousand tons.
Unfortunately, many ancient plants have not survived to the present day; many did not survive due to natural reasons. Some of them were cut down for safety reasons, and many were poached.
But thanks to the surviving centenarians, we can learn the history of the development of the Earth, trace how living conditions on our planet changed.
For a long time, people have noticed that with the help of plants it is possible to determine the time of day, the approach of bad weather, find out the cardinal directions and even the location of ore. Plants, like all living organisms, develop according to their biological rhythms and therefore “wake up”, for example, each at its own time: dandelions at 6 o’clock in the morning, wild carnations an hour later, morning glory at 8-9 o’clock, etc. Based on this patterns K. Linnaeus compiled the first living flower “clocks” in the 18th century. Plants also react to fluctuations in temperature and humidity in the atmosphere. Some, in order to protect pollen from bad weather, close the corollas of flowers or do not open them at all. Such barometer plants include, for example, the small woodlice grass, which grows thickly in vegetable gardens: if the corollas of its graceful flowers do not open before 9 o’clock in the morning, then it will rain during the day. Other plants release excess moisture before storms. So, a day before the rain, droplets of moisture appear on the edges of the wide carved leaves of the monstera, which is why we call this tropical vine the crybaby. Well known to travelers are the compass plants, lettuce and silphium, growing on open places. To protect themselves from overheating, they place their leaves edge-on towards the south, since during the day the greatest wind comes from the south. solar radiation; respectively, the flat side of the leaves faces east and west. People also noticed that some plants grow only on certain soils, and from this relationship they learned to find minerals. Such people were called ore miners. Currently, scientists have identified a whole group of indicator plants. Among them is the lady's slipper orchid, which grows only on soils where there are calcium deposits.
On the postcard: morning glory (top), lettuce (left), chickweed (center), monstera (bottom), lady's slipper (right).
Artist 3. V. Vorontsova
© « art" Moscow. 1989
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Our planet has not always been green. A long time ago, when life was just beginning, the land was empty and lifeless - the first forms chose the World Ocean as their habitat. But gradually the earth's surface also began to be developed by various creatures. The first plants on Earth are also the earliest land inhabitants. What were the ancestors of modern representatives of the flora?
Photo: pikabu.ruSo imagine the Earth 420 million years ago, in an era called the Silurian period. This date was not chosen by chance - it was at this time, scientists believe, that plants finally began to conquer the land.
For the first time, the remains of Cooksonia were discovered in Scotland (the first representative of the terrestrial flora was named after Isabella Cookson, a famous paleobotanist). But scientists suggest that it was distributed throughout the globe.
It was not so easy to leave the waters of the World Ocean and begin to develop land. To do this, plants had to literally rebuild their entire organism: acquire a shell resembling a cuticle, protecting it from drying out, and acquire special stomata, with the help of which it was possible to regulate evaporation and absorb substances necessary for life.
Cooksonia, which consists of thin green stems not exceeding five centimeters in height, was considered one of the most developed plants. But the Earth’s atmosphere and its inhabitants were rapidly changing, and the oldest representative of the flora was increasingly losing ground. On this moment the plant is considered extinct.
Photo: stihi.ru The remains of the nematothallus do not even remotely resemble plants - they look more like shapeless black spots. But despite its strange appearance, in development this plant has gone far ahead of its comrades in its habitat. The fact is that the cuticle of the nematothallus is already more similar to the parts of existing plants - it consisted of formations resembling modern cells, which is why it received the name pseudocellular. It is worth noting that in other species this shell simply looked like a continuous film.
Nematothallus gave a lot of food for thought scientific world. Some scientists attributed it to red algae, others were inclined to think that it was a lichen. And the mystery of this ancient organism has not yet been solved.
Photo: amgpgu.ru Rhinia and almost all other ancient plants with a vascular structure are classified as rhiniophytes. Representatives of this group have not grown on Earth for a long time. However, this fact does not at all prevent scientists from studying these living creatures that once dominated the land - many fossils found in many parts of the planet allow us to judge how appearance, and about the structure of such plants.
Rhiniophytes have several important features, which allow us to assert: these living beings are completely different from their descendants. Firstly, their stem was not covered with soft bark: scale-like processes grew on it. Secondly, rhinophytes reproduced exclusively with the help of spores, which were formed in special organs called sporangia.
But the most important difference is that these plants lacked as such root system. Instead, there were root formations covered with “hairs” - rhizoids, with the help of which rhinia absorbed water and substances necessary for life.
Photo: bio.1september.ru This plant was recently considered a representative of the animal world. The fact is that its remains - small, round in shape - were initially mistaken for the eggs of frogs or fish, algae, or even the eggs of long-extinct crustacean scorpions. The parks discovered in 1891 put an end to the misconceptions.
The plant lived on our planet about 400 million years ago. This time dates back to the beginning of the Devonian period.
Photo: bio.1september.ru The remains of pachyteca, like the parka fossils found, are balls small size(the largest discovered has a diameter of 7 millimeters). ABOUT this plant quite little is known: scientists were only able to establish the fact that it consisted of tubes arranged radially and converging in the center, where the nucleus was located.
This plant is a dead-end branch of flora development, in fact, like parkas and rhineries. It has not been possible to establish for certain what was the impetus for their emergence and why they became extinct. The only reason, according to scientists, is the development of vascular plants, which simply displaced their less developed relatives.
Plants that made it onto land chose a completely different path of development. It was thanks to them that it was born animal world and, accordingly, an intelligent life form appeared - man. And who knows what our planet would look like now if the Rinias, Parks and Cooksonias had not decided to develop land?..
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Plants on the planet play important role. It's no secret that trees are the lungs of the planet, and flowers are best decoration parks and globe. The first plants existed long before the appearance of man himself - geologists still find their fossilized remains today. But which modern plants can be considered the most ancient? And have those rare ancient specimens survived to this day?
1 The oldest plant in the world - Old Tikko
He is 9550 years old. This is Norway spruce, officially recognized as the oldest clonal tree on earth. It grows in the Swedish national park in the province of Dalarna.
2
One of the most ancient plants on earth is a tree with the interesting name “Metasequoia glyptostroboides”. It was thought to have died long ago, but in 1943 a living representative of this genus was discovered in China. After examining the remains and materials taken from a living tree, it was found that their ages are not that different.
3
Brazil boasts the oldest non-coniferous tree. This is the Patriarch of the forest, which is already more than 3000 years old. Unfortunately, the Patriarch grows in the very center of the deforestation zone, which means it risks being destroyed every day.
4
In Taiwan, until 1998, there was a tree with an age of 3,000 years: Alishan Sacred Tree from the cypress genus, in other words - red cypress. Today, a fence is installed around its trunk, testifying to the sanctity and value of the plant.
5 
In 1968, the Suga Jamon tree was discovered in Japan on the island of Yakushima. Its age is estimated to range from 2,500 to 7,200 years. It is impossible to determine the exact date because inner part the wood has completely rotted - this often happens with old plants. The plant belongs to the species “Cryptomeria japonica”. Its circumference is 16.2 m, height - 25.3 m.
6
The Cormac Tree grows in Italy - it is oldest tree, which is also called European olive. It is about 3,000 years old and “lives” in Sardinia. Well, if you think about it, it is not surprising that it is in Italy that the most ancient olive Tree.
7
Hundred horse chestnut is a tree of the “sowing chestnut” species. It got its name because of the legend according to which one hundred knights were once able to shelter from the rain under its crown. Its representatives today are also in Russia - in the south Krasnodar region. The main plant, which is more than 3,000 years old, grows in Sicily. According to official data from the Guinness Book of Records, this tree is the thickest: its circumference is almost 60 meters.
8
Fitzroya cypress is the oldest representative of the Fitzroy genus. Now he is on the verge of extinction. Under natural conditions, these trees grow in South America and Patagonia. The Sochi climate is also well suited for them. The oldest representative, 58 m high and 2.4 meters in diameter, can be seen in the Argentine National Park. Its age is more than 2600 years.
9
A very interesting specimen grows in the California National Park. This is the "mammoth tree" named General Sherman. Its age exceeds 2,500 years. The total mass of the plant is almost 2,000 tons, and the height reaches 85 meters. It is not only one of the oldest, but also the most big tree on the ground.
10
Sri Maha Bodia from the ficus genus is a sacred tree of Buddhists. They believe that it was under him that Buddha achieved enlightenment. The height of the tree does not exceed 30 meters, and its age is more than 2,300 years.
The list of the oldest plants on the planet goes on. Some of them were cut down due to safety precautions, many were destroyed by poachers, but most of earthly centenarians has survived to this day and can tell us about the past of the Earth.
