King Clone facts for kids
King Clone is an amazing plant found in the Mojave Desert. It's a huge ring of creosote bushes. Scientists believe it is about 11,700 years old. This makes King Clone one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. Even though it looks like many separate bushes, it's actually one single plant. It grew from one original seed. New stems kept growing outwards, while the older ones in the center died. This created a ring shape. The entire ring can be as wide as 67 feet (about 20 meters). Its average width is around 45 feet (about 14 meters).
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Where is King Clone Located?
The King Clone plant is found in the central part of the Mojave Desert. This area is in California, near the towns of Lucerne Valley and Landers. The land where King Clone grows is protected. It is part of the Creosote Rings Preserve. This helps keep this ancient plant safe.
How Do We Know King Clone's Age?
A professor named Frank Vasek from the University of California, Riverside discovered King Clone. He also figured out how old it was.
Identifying King Clone
First, Professor Vasek thought that all the bushes in the ring were part of one plant. A student named Leonel da Silveira Lobo O'Reilly Sternberg helped prove this. He found that plants inside the same ring were more alike than plants from other groups. This showed they were all connected.
Estimating the Age
Professor Vasek used two main ways to guess the plant's age.
- One way was like counting tree rings. He looked at the growth rings in the wood. He also measured how much the plant grew each year.
- The second way used radiocarbon dating. This method looks at carbon in old wood. Pieces of wood were found in the center of the ring. Scientists measured how far these pieces were from the living bushes.
Both methods gave very similar results. They both suggested King Clone is about 11,700 years old.
See also
In Spanish: King Clone para niños
