Today let’s talk about the oldest tree in the world and the loneliest tree in the world. And we think our “tree” is old! Trees are older by far than our ancestors are.

“Scientists have examined an ancient tree still growing in a remote part of central Chile’s Alerce Costero National Park, claiming it could be the oldest tree in the world. They believe it has survived for more than 5,000 years making it older that California’s 4,850-year-old Methuselah, the bristlecone pine.  Known as “Gran Abuelo,” or great-grandfather, the Patagonian cypress can be accessed only by an hour-long hike and is patrolled by a number of park rangers to make sure it is not harmed. The tree is 189-feet tall and is 13-feet in diameter.” (Bit in Spokesman Review.)

Nestled in a windswept cove on far south end of New Zealand’s Campbell Island, is a lone tree that should not be there. A 30-foot tall Sitka spruce has grown into a cauliflower shape rather than the cone-shape typical of the species. How in the world did a Sitka spruce, native to the North American western coast, end up here? Well, according to Google, the lonely tree was planted about 1900 by New Zealand’s then-governor, Lord Ranfurly. More than 100 years later, the introduced spruce is considered the most isolated tree in the world. 

The conifer endures not only isolation but also the wild weather of the “Furious Fifties” latitudes. Campbell Island has 325 days of rain per year and gale-force winds for 100 days per year. Surprisingly, the spruce seems to be thriving in these conditions and still growing. 

In many Native American cultures, trees are considered to be ancestors, meaning they are viewed as part of the family lineage and are deeply respected as living beings with a spirit, sharing a connection to the past generations and the natural world at large; this belief stems from the understanding that humans and trees are interconnected and part of the same life force. (AI generated response in Google.)

“Scholars do not agree about the identity of the original Mother Goose, the legendary creator of nursery rhymes that have endured though the centuries. But the real American Mother Goose was a Boston grandmother named Elizabeth Foster Goose, whose son-in-law, Thomas Fleet, ‘was almost driven distracted’ by her singing, rhyming and storytelling until, in 1719, he turned her creations into a profit by publishing them in a pamphlet, Mother Goose Melodies. This launched his mother-in-law into immortality. 

“Mother Goose” was born Elizabeth Foster in Charleston, Massachusetts, in 1655. When she was 27 she married Isaac Goose (originally Vergoose) and took over the mothering of the 55-year-old widower’s ten children. She bore Goose six additional children.

One of her daughters, also named Elizabeth, married Thomas Fleet, an exiled printed from England who had a shop on Boston’s Pudding Lane. Grandmother Elizabeth often minded the couples’ seven children and entertained them endlessly with her stories in rhyme. 

“Mother Goose” died in Boston in 1757 at the age of 92 and was buried in the Old Granary Burying Ground. 

I’m sure you recognize this:  “Old mother Hubbard went to her cupboard to give her poor dog a bone. When she got there, the cupboard was bare and so the poor dog had none.”

(Big thanks to the July 1981 issue of American History Illustrated  for this editorial bit penned by Peggy Robbins.)