Old yew from Balderschwang
The old yew tree from Balderschwang is located in the high valley of Balderschwang in the Oberallgäu district . It is possibly the oldest tree in Germany.
description
The old yew is a female specimen of the European yew ( Taxus baccata ). For her age she has very vital needles. It forms numerous St. John's shoots on the trunks and bears abundant fruit every year.
The old yew tree consists of two trunk parts that grow from one root. The fact that both trunk parts belong to the same individual and did not arise from an intergrowth of two trees was confirmed by comparative morphological studies and a genetic analysis. The yew tree is 7 m high. The trunk parts individually have a circumference of 2.4 and 2 m. Together with the missing middle section, this results in an imaginary total trunk circumference of 8.1 m and a diameter of 2.6 m.
Location
The old yew tree is located about one kilometer northeast of the center of Balderschwang . It grows in an alpine meadow above the path to the Upper Socheralpe and the Lower Balderschwanger Alpe at an altitude of 1150 m above sea level. NN .
The old yew tree grows on a nutrient-rich, but shallow soil above calcareous Nagelfluh rock on a south-facing slope. Despite the soil's low water-holding capacity, it will rarely have experienced drought stress, as Balderschwang is the rainiest municipality in Germany with an average annual rainfall of 2,450 mm . In winter the tree is protected by a high snow cover of up to four meters. However, the altitude results in a short vegetation period and a low annual mean temperature . Therefore, the old yew tree is likely to have a lower growth rate than yew trees in the lowlands and, accordingly, have a higher age with the same dimensions.
Age
The information on the age of tree veterans usually shows a wide range, as missing trunk parts often make it impossible to determine the age precisely using a tree ring analysis. The age is then derived from the trunk circumference and assumed tree ring widths. The width of the missing tree rings is estimated compared to other specimens of the same tree species that had similar growing conditions, which leaves a greater margin.
Tree ring analysis cannot be carried out on the old yew tree either. The decisive factor for their age is whether the two parts of the trunk are the remains of a common trunk, the middle part of which is rotten, or two independently grown stick rashes that originate from one root. In the first case, an age of well over 1000 years is certain due to the large total trunk size. But even with stick outbreaks, an age of over 800 years is likely due to the dimensions of the root and the trunk parts. The age data for the Old Yew tree from Balderschwang vary from 600 to 1000 years over 1000 years up to 2000 to 4000 years. An age between 800 and 1500 years should be realistic.
See also
- Striking and old tree specimens
- Until 1945 the yew tree from Hennersdorf (now Upper Lusatia in Poland) was the oldest tree in Germany
literature
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Old lovable trees in Germany. Cornelia Ahlering Verlag, Buchholz 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5 .
- Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Paths to old trees - Volume 2, Bavaria. Widi-Druck, Offenbach 1990, ISBN 3-926181-09-5 .
- Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees , page 171, BLV, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Stefan Kühn, Bernd Ullrich, Uwe Kühn: Germany's old trees , page 171, BLV, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8354-0183-9
- ↑ DWD , Period 1961-90
- ↑ Hans Joachim Fröhlich : Old lovable trees in Germany. Cornelia Ahlering Verlag, Buchholz 2000, ISBN 3-926600-05-5
- ↑ Information on site
- ↑ Yew tree from Hennersdorf is considered the oldest tree in Germany, 1911 . UNIVERSITAS 1965 Yew tree from Hennersdorf was considered the oldest tree in Germany.
Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′ 5.6 " N , 10 ° 6 ′ 55.5" E