What is the oldest tree in Vassununga?
The oldest tree in Vassununga is O Patriarca, a jequitiba-rosa standing in the Pe de Gigante section of the state park and widely reported as the oldest tree in Brazil. Its actual age depends on which source you read: estimates run from 600 years to more than 3,000, and none of them arrives with a method attached. The trunk measures between 11.5 and 12.3 metres round, about four metres through, under roughly 40 metres of height. Entry is free but must be booked in advance through the park's own online form.
The three ages in circulation come from three different places and none of them settles the question. English Wikipedia notes that the 600-year figure was arrived at by carbon dating a neighbouring tree and reasoning across to this one, which is a comparison rather than a dating of the Patriarca itself. The municipality prefers a round 1,000. Several Brazilian outlets repeat a carbon-14 result of over 3,000 years without saying who ran it or when. What every source does agree on is the framing, and the press has used it for years: the oldest tree in the country. The measurements are steadier. Circumference is given as 11.5 metres in one source and 12.3 in another, both of which put the trunk close to four metres through, or about thirteen people with their arms linked. Height is reported at 40 or 42 metres, with a single outlier at 49. The setting surprises most first-time visitors, because this is not rainforest: Pe de Gigante is cerrado, the Brazilian savanna, a low landscape of grass and small twisted trees with one enormous exception standing in it.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.