A game with one move

Plant the Oldest Tree

Put a tree in the ground. Your score is how long it stands. The game keeps going long after you stop playing, and the current leader made her move more than 2,300 years ago.

Holder of the crown

Sanghamitta

Sacred fig (Ficus religiosa) · Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka · planted 288 BCE

2,313years and counting

Sanghamitta was a Buddhist nun, the daughter of the emperor Ashoka. When women in Sri Lanka asked to be ordained, the island's king sent for her. She came carrying a branch of the very tree the Buddha sat beneath at Bodh Gaya, and brought it by river and sea in a golden vessel to the old capital, Anuradhapura.

There it was planted with great ceremony beside King Devanampiya Tissa, and it is still alive. Guinness lists it as the oldest human-planted tree with a known planting date. The tree it was cut from is gone; the one standing at Bodh Gaya today was grown in 1881 from a cutting of hers.

She founded the island's order of nuns, lived out her life in Anuradhapura, and died around 203 BCE. Her tree has outlived her by more than 2,200 years. Sri Lankans still mark her arrival every December full moon.

The board

Living trees with a named planter, ranked by years in the ground. Ages tick live. Most of these players are long gone; their trees are still playing for them.

Hall of legends

Ancient trees that tradition says a famous hand planted. No record backs the claim, so they are honored here and kept off the board. If any of them were ever proved, the crown would move.

Zoroaster
4,000+ years
The Cypress of Abarkuh, Iran. Legend says the prophet planted it on his way to Balkh. It may be the oldest living thing in Asia.
Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor
4,000+ years
A great cypress at Xuanyuan Temple, Shaanxi, China, said to be planted by the emperor himself. Often called China's oldest cypress.
Pechocha
about 1,400 years
Árbol del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico. Zapotec tradition names a priest of the wind god Ehecatl. Growth-rate estimates of the tree's age land close to the story.
Confucius
about 2,500 years, claimed
A juniper at the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, China. Guides say the tree standing now is closer to 300 years old.

Unclaimed

Old plantings with a date but no planter's name on record. Whoever planted these is playing anonymously.

Goethe's palm, Padua
1585
A fan palm in the world's oldest university botanical garden. Named for a famous visitor who studied it in 1786, not for whoever put it in the ground.
The Great Vine, Hampton Court
moved 1768
Set in its current spot under Capability Brown's direction. It is a grapevine, so under Rule 2 it would not count even with a name.

Rules

Simple enough to play without a referee for a few thousand years.

One move.Plant a tree. Your score is the number of years it has been in the ground, counted from the day it was planted, for as long as it lives.
It has to be a tree.A woody plant that holds itself up on a trunk. Vines, shrubs and bonsai are lovely and do not count.
The bringer is the player.Whoever chose the tree, carried it, and committed it to its ground is the planter. Hands that helped, kings included, are witnesses.
A cutting is a new game.Seed, sapling or cutting are all fair, but a tree grown from another tree starts at zero. Sanghamitta's fig did not inherit the age of the tree it came from.
Same roots, same tree.If the trunk falls and the same roots send up new growth, the clock keeps running. Olives, yews and cypresses are good at this.
Moving is allowed.A tree can be dug up and replanted. Its clock started the first time it went into the ground.
You keep playing after you die.The score belongs to the planter for as long as the tree stands. When the tree dies, the score is final.
Show your evidence.Recorded means a planting date in a document or chronicle. Provisional means the planter is known but the date is fuzzy, so the score starts at the latest plausible date. Legend means tradition only, and legends are not ranked.
The crown passes only by outliving.A younger tree can never catch a living leader, because both clocks run at the same speed. To take first place, your tree has to still be standing after the leader falls, with more years on it than the leader ever reached.
Guardians may be named.Tending someone else's tree does not make it yours, but it keeps their game alive. Sanghamitta's tree arrived with families sworn to guard it, and some of their descendants still serve it.

How to plant a contender

Luck matters, but the trees on the board share a pattern: a species that lives long, a place that stays sacred or valued, and people who keep showing up for it.

Pick a species that can go the distance

Sacred fig2,300 yrs provenThe reigning champion. Needs warm, frost-free winters.
English yew1,000s of yrsHollows out with age and keeps going. Tolerates shade and pruning.
Olive1,000s of yrsResprouts from its base after damage. Made for dry summers and mild winters.
Giant sequoia3,000+ yrs wildNeeds room, deep soil and winter chill. Thick bark shrugs off fire.
Montezuma cypress1,400+ yrsThe Tule's species. Wants warmth and a reliable water table.
Ginkgo1,000+ yrsShrugs off pollution, pests and city life. A safe pick for streets and campuses.
Cedar of Lebanon1,000+ yrs wildPococke's 1646 tree is still standing in England.
Bristlecone pine4,800 yrs wildThe oldest of all in the wild, but it grows old only in harsh, poor ground. Hard to win with in a garden.

Choose ground that will be left alone

Temples, churchyards, cemeteries, old campuses and public parks have kept trees for centuries. Private yards change hands every few decades.
Plant where nothing will be built: away from foundations, pipes, power lines and the edge of any road that might be widened.
Give it the full width it will reach. A tree that will be 30 m across needs that room now.
Match the tree to the place: its soil, water, sun and coldest night. Native or well-adapted trees outlast pampered exotics.

Put it in the ground well

Plant small. Young trees settle in faster and outlive big transplants.
Dig wide, not deep. Set the flare where trunk meets roots at or just above ground level.
Plant in the cool, wet season so the roots get a head start before summer.
Mulch a wide ring but keep it off the trunk. Water deeply and not too often for the first two or three years.
Guard the trunk from mowers, trimmers, deer and people. Do not let anyone park on the roots.

Plan for the people after you

Write it down: date, place, species, source, a photo, and your name. Put copies somewhere that will outlast you, like a library, a tree register, or a land record.
Name guardians, then ask them to name theirs. Sanghamitta's tree has been tended without a break for 2,300 years.
Seek legal protection: heritage tree listings, deed restrictions, conservation easements.
Give it a day. A yearly gathering keeps a tree in a community's memory, and memory is what protects it.
Keep backups: take cuttings and grow them on elsewhere. They start their own games, but they keep the line alive.

Enter the game

Planted something already, or about to? Log it here and see where it sits on the board.