3,500 Year Old Florida Tree Dies of Natural Causes

hondo77 writes with an excerpt from The Daily "'Mother Nature claimed one of her oldest living specimens (Monday) in a freak fire that destroyed a 3,500-year-old bald cypress tree towering over central Florida. Known as "The Senator," or simply "The Big Tree," the hollowed-out majestic timber, standing at 118 feet tall, ignited before dawn. Firefighters watched helplessly as the oldest tree east of the Mississippi ? and the fifth oldest in the world ? blazed and then collapsed in a heap of flaming embers.' The fire likely started by 'either a weeks- old lightning strike that smoldered until combustion occured, or friction caused by buffeting winds that ignited a spark and erupted in flames.'"

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/RVqi3FhPNqQ/3500-year-old-florida-tree-dies-of-natural-causes

stevie wonder gurkha cobra starship cobra starship blue whale melissa joan hart sylvia plath