microtheca: A scrawny plant that appears to suffer a slow…
A scrawny plant that appears to suffer a slow starvation on the desert floor, the creosote is, in fact, a champion of survival according to botanist Frank Vasek’s findings published in the ‘American Journal of Botany.’
‘The oldest we found, dubbed King Clone, is 11,700 years old by our estimates,’ Vasek said. ’ We believe it was one of the first life forms to colonize the Mojave Desert when the last glacier receded, and has been a continuous resident there ever since.’
Vasek was the first to see a ring of separate creosote bushes as all part of the same living thing. He theorized that the entire distance to the center of the creosote ring was at one time solid wood, the outer ring of bushes comparable with the outer layer of living bark on a redwood tree.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/55507444644.
