Plant Life World’s Oldest Shrub Found in Finland

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Researchers claim to have found the world’s oldest shrub – a juniper in Finland. On examining the shrub’s annual rings, researchers found out that it was 1,647 years old.

Turku/Finland – According to the researchers’ analysis, the juniper started its growth at Utsjoki in 260 CE and died in 1906. It is likely that the juniper started growing even earlier, as it is almost impossible to count all the years of the plant's life. It is the oldest shrub in the world dated by annual rings and the oldest woody plant in Europe determined with this method.

“Juniper is the most widespread woody species in the world. It is found from sea level to the upper limits of vegetation, from Alaska to Etna, from Japan to Scotland. It is an extremely eclectic species, capable of tolerating scorching temperatures and aridity, such as in sandy dunes, or, conversely, in freezing environments near glaciers. Today, this record is joined by that of being

the world's oldest shrub,” says leader of the research team, Professor Marco Carrer from the University of Padua.

The researchers found the juniper during a visit to the Kevo Subarctic Research Institute of the University of Turku located at Utsjoki, Lapland. They found the plant five kilometres from the Research Institute in 2021. At that time, they determined the age of the juniper at 1,242 years. However, the researchers returned to Utsjoki in 2024 and revised their dating, revealing that the juniper is incredibly 1,647 years old. The research team also found four other junipers in Utsjoki that are over 1,000 years old.

“The oldest juniper and the oldest woody plant in Finland was a 1,070-year-old specimen found in Lemmenjoki before this discovery. The age record of Finnish junipers has now been improved by almost 600 years," says Otso Suominen, Director of the Kevo Subarctic Research Institute.

The research team studied old junipers from the Arctic and subarctic regions in Finland, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden and the northern Ural Mountains. In addition to Utsjoki, junipers that were over a thousand years old were found near the Abisko Scientific Research Station in Kiruna, Sweden.

“We study the wood rings from which we extract valuable information regarding climate changes and vegetation development. However, when venturing to the far north, trees give way to smaller plants. Hence, the need to focus on a very common and long-lived species, but capable of producing rings like trees: the juniper was perfect for our studies,” explains Angela Luisa Prendin, one of the Padua authors of the study.

The researchers were able to calculate the exact calendar years of growth for an individual juniper by cross-referencing the annual rings of several old junipers collected from the same area. The junipers allow scientists to study climate variations, exceptional weather events or other events that contributed to the growth of the juniper thousands of years ago. The data can also be used to accurately date archaeological wood material findings.

The Kevo Subarctic Research Institute of the University of Turku is part of the international Interact network of Arctic research stations conducting terrestrial research. The Italian research team came to Kevo through the network and with the support of EU funding.

“Our Research Institute was chosen as the research team's target because it is the northernmost research station in continental Europe in the Interact network. We helped the research team to find suitable research sites and to choose the best time for the visit, and provided support for the practical work, such as applying for the necessary permits," Suominen says.

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