A nondescript, decrepit twist of gnarled wood found tucked between rocks in the Finnish tundra is a lot more than meets the eye.
Concealed within the tangled limbs of the now-dead common juniper (Juniperus communis) is an age more venerable than any shrub on record. It shriveled and died in 1906 CE – but it started its ring growth in around 260 CE, according to an analysis of its rings.
This means it sprouted even earlier; scientists have calculated that it lived 1,647 years on this Earth before it met its demise.
“Juniper is the most widespread woody species in the world. It is found from sea level to the upper limits of vegetation, from Alaska to Etna, from Japan to Scotland. It is an extremely eclectic species, capable of tolerating scorching temperatures and aridity, such as in sandy dunes, or, conversely, in freezing environments near glaciers,” says dendrochronologist Marco Carrer of the University of Padua in Italy.
“Today, this record is joined by that of being the world’s oldest shrub.”
Animals and plants are very different kinds of organisms, and one of the most fascinating differences between the two is longevity. There are clonal trees living on Earth that are tens of thousands of years old; and single trees whose age numbers in the thousands of years.
There are a number of reasons these ancient trees are worth protecting. They preserve records of past climate and even geological and cosmic events in the regions wherein they reside. They represent stable biodiversity hotspots. And copses and forests hosting very old trees are significant contributors to carbon capture and storage.
The particular juniper shrub in question has been known about for a few years now; it was discovered in Utsjoki, Lapland in 2021, not far from the Kevo Subarctic Research Institute of the University of Turku.
At that time, scientists estimated its age at around 1,242 years. When they revisited the shrub in 2024, they found they were mistaken. It was significantly older. They also found four other juniper shrubs with ages that exceeded 1,000 years in Utsjoki, and several more in Sweden.
“The oldest juniper and the oldest woody plant in Finland was a 1,070-year-old specimen found in Lemmenjoki before this discovery,” says ecologist Otso Suominen of the Kevo Subarctic Research Institute.
“The age record of Finnish junipers has now been improved by almost 600 years.”
To find the age of the juniper, the researchers conducted a count of the rings in its trunk, since woody plants add a new layer on a more-or-less annual basis. Then, they compared this to the tree ring growth of other old junipers in the same area to calibrate the growth rate of the species.
Junipers in particular are prone to a phenomenon in which they might skip a year of growth, resulting in a missing ring for that year. Cross comparison with other junipers allowed the researchers to identify those gaps in their ancient shrub, and calculate an age they believe is more accurate. In fact, they believe their new estimate may even be conservative; the true age of the shrub may be between 10 to 200 years older than the age they derived.
It’s likely the tundra retains even older juniper shrubs, the researchers say, which means efforts to protect this remarkable biome are warranted.
“Current warming at high latitudes, along with consequent natural vegetation dynamics and climate change-driven increases in the intensity and frequency of natural disturbances, may pose even more serious threats,” they write in their paper.
“The northward advance of forest vegetation can rapidly outcompete old junipers and alter the natural disturbance regime that commonly shapes tundra assemblages. This emphasizes the need to first recognize and then implement conservation efforts to prevent the loss of this unique component of the tundra biome.”
The discovery has been published in Ecology.
