"OLDEST LIVING THING"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22406, 30 April 1936, Page 19

"OLDEST LIVING THING"

| CLAIM BY QUEENSLAND ■iTREES GROWING 12,000 YEARS Queensland claims to have the oldest living thing on earth. It is a macrozamia, a treo over 20 feot in height unci estimated to bo more than 12,000 years old. Jn the Tamborino Mountain reserve there is a whole grove of macrozamia, the youngest of them being i3ft. in height and 3000 years old. When Professor Chamberlain, of Chicago University, was appointed to collect data concerning macrozanlias ho travelled all over the world, and the largest specimen ho had seen prior to going to Queensland was between six and seven feet in height and was found in South Africa. Professor Chamberlain was amazed, therefore, whim he iound in tho Tamborine Mountain reserve a whole grove of inacimnmiu which measured over 20 feot in height, and tho ages of which he estimated to bo between 12,000 and 15,000 years. The largest macrozamia which Professor Chamberlain had ever seen, weighing 851 b., as against tho South African record of 351 b., contained 151. seeds, and these wore sent to America. One seed was planted in each of America's 151 national parks. Now each of tho seeds has germinated, so that a descendant of Queensland's macrozamia is growing in each of the national parks of America.