Sunday 26 February 2017

I Chanced Upon A Fascinating Book,

well I thought it was,


it is titled The Oldest Living Things in the World, and has pictures of some of them, like this one of a llareta plant, parts of which are over 3000 years old, it calls Chile's Atacama desert its home, llaretas can be found throughout the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina,

 Stromatolites, 2,000 – 3,000 years old, found in Carbla Station, Western Australia,

 Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata), which can be up to 2,000 years old, pictured in the Kruger National Park, South Africa,

Welwitschia mirabilis, "I've heard everything between 1500 to 3000 years as an age estimate for the largest welwitschias," the author says about these strange plants, she photographed this example – probably around 2000 years old – in the Naukluft desert in Namibia,

the book is by Rachel Sussman, whose web page unfortunately seems not to be working at present, but I found this in The New Yorker, the book is available from University of Chicago Press and no I am not on commission, I just thought it was a neat book.


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