The oldest tree in Italy: 2,200 years old

Italy wins the primacy of the oldest tree. Has 2,200 years, a study attests to this surprising age thanks to an in-depth study with DNA. It’s located in Sicily in Sant’Alfio, in the province of Catania, on the slopes of Mount Etna. His name is Chestnut of the Hundred Horses, the trunk has a diameter of 18 meters, the blade covers 1000 square meters. The special name is due to Queen Giovanna I of Anjou. She named it that after she took shelter under the branches during a storm, along with his 100 horsemen.

It was thought to be between 3-4 thousand years old, but today we know it is exactly 2,200. This confirmation came from the study by the Council for Research in Agriculture and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy (CREA). The exact age was established thanks to the research of some molecular markers already used to identify different types of chestnuts. The researchers used them to analyze DNA isolated from eight different spots in the foliage of the Hundred Horse Chestnut.

The results of the study show that the three trunks that make up the tree come from the same seed and not from sister chestnuts, as was believed. The three tribes formed for radial fragmentation from the same factory. The prestige of this study goes beyond register identification of the chestnut, but it is useful for other purposes as well. For example determining the behavior of all other plants, growth mutations, genome variables and the evolution of living things.