Some Trembling Aspen (Populus tremuloides) colonies in the Rocky Mountains are thousands of years old.
Photo: Mark Conboy
Check out this fascinating Ted Talk by Rachel Sussman on some of the world's oldest, and incidentally, weirdest, organisms. From the otherworldly Welwitschia mirabilis whose two massive leaves are never shed, even after centuries of growth, to the ridiculously ancient actinobacteria that remain active even in the coldest conditions of the Siberia tundra, it will blow your mind to meet some of the oldest organisms we share our little blue planet with!
