The oldest tree of the South Siberian Botanical Garden of the flagship Altai State University celebrates 210 years

This is one of the tallest pines of the university botanical garden in the girth at the base reaching almost two meters, of the Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) species.

From 1992 to 2016, Rudolf Kamelin, an outstanding Russian botanist, founder of the botanical school of the university and the Turczaninowia journal, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of the Russian Botanical Society, Head of the Department of Herbarium of Higher Plants of the Botanical Institute named V.L. Komarov of RAS worked at the Altai State University. He often brought specialists in various fields of biology and related sciences to the university. On one of these visits, the South Siberian Botanical Garden was visited by a dendrochronologist who studies the tree rings of woody plants and the factors that show their growth.

“This specialist drew attention to one of the pines of our botanical garden, drilled the necessary hole in accordance with the safety standards for the life of the tree, took a sample -“core”, as experts say, and found out by the annual rings that this pine is two hundred years old. This is the oldest pine in the Altai Botanical Garden of the University”, said Director of the South Siberian Botanical Garden, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor Alexander Shmakov. "Dendrochronological studies were carried out in 2009, so this year the oldest pine of the university celebrates its 210th anniversary".

Interestingly, among the ancient Slavs, pine was considered a symbol of eternity, longevity and immortality, endurance and overcoming adverse circumstances.

In the United States and a number of other countries, it is customary to give personal names to such oldest, unique trees. For example, one of the oldest known trees in the world, growing in California, and also belonging to the Pine genus, but of the species Pinus longaeva, is 4850 years old and bears the name Methuselah.

In honor of the anniversary of the university pine, the SSBG and the Department of Information and Media Communications of Altai State University decided to announce a competition in social networks among applicants and students of the flagship university for giving a name to a long-lived tree.