The oldest plants of the world

Age of gustorastuschego flowering shrub called Yareta, is a relative of parsley - more than 2000 years. Atacama Desert, Chile.

Photographer Rachel Sussman has traveled the world to capture the earliest trees and other living organisms that inhabit our Earth, the pictures which are then included in his book "The oldest living beings in the world».

For example baobab tree that grows in Africa, is an ancient organic monument of our planet, which is often used by people for a very unusual purposes: as a prison, the church, a bus stop and even public toilets (a giant baobab tree can accommodate 20 to 30 people). < br />
As scientists believe, one of the oldest living things on the planet are actinomycetes - bacteria that live in the permafrost in Siberia, up to 600 thousand years.

Ancient life can be found on every continent: 5, 500-year-old Antarctic moss; 100, 000-year-old Mediterranean grass Posidonia oceanic (living relative of Neanderthals); 12, 000-year-old creosote bush that grows in the Mojave Desert, and the Tasmanian plant Lomatia tasmanica, which is assumed to 43, 600 years. For example, oceanic Posidonia grows more when our ancestors from Africa began to settle in other lands.

In his book, Rachel Sussman included infographic map habitats of ancient plants, as well as stories about what the author had to go for these shots, sometimes risking their health or even life.

Once the photographer wandered in Greenland broke his wrist during a trip to Sri Lanka, training scuba diving to witness the summer of 2000 coral-mozgoviki from the coast Tobago.

According to Rachel Sussman, she often had to deal with a completely irresponsible and permissive attitude to the oldest, and therefore a rare species of plants that are on the verge of extinction. For example, the so-called underground forest in South Africa (massive root system, which draws water and nutrients deep into the dry soil is protected from forest fires in these dry areas) was sprinkled chemicals to its place build a road or organizing field. And in Florida burned a unique cypress age of 3,500 years.

Therefore, in his book, Rachel warns people: "Ancient - does not mean immortal».

Weight branches that you see at the bottom of the tree, growing so already 9500 years. Thin trunks in the middle of about 50 years - and a warmer climate, thanks