It is known that a few days ago, American botanists discovered the oldest plant in the world, which was an oak tree at the end of the ice age10.3 million years ago. This ancient species that has survived to this day has always maintained asexual reproduction. Scientists discovered the oldest living plant in the world 13000 years ago. According to the British magazine New Scientist, a few days ago, California botanists discovered the oldest plant species in the world. This plant called Jurupa Oak originated at the end of the Ice Age and has a history of 13000 years. About 10 years ago, Mitch Provance of the University of California found a small piece of Jurupa oak bush when he was investigating and analyzing plants in the Jurupa Mountains in Southern California. Provence is very interested in these shrubs, not only because they grow at high altitude in mountainous areas, but also because each shrub is surprisingly similar. Provence speculated that these shrubs were likely to reproduce asexually with each other. Provence and his colleagues analyzed the protein of shrub leaves, and found that the leaves of different shrubs have the same form of protein structure. Jeffrey Ross Hibarra, who is in charge of the research, said: "This oak tree is likely to reproduce asexually. The evidence that they belong to ice age plants is that they have a high rate of' acorn abortion'. These plants can't grow acorn fruit, and they are basically' sterile plants'. " In order to determine the origin age of these shrubs, the research team reversed the life cycle of shrubs. Every 40-50 years, wildfires will burn the bushes, and they will sprout and grow on the ground. The newly sprouted plants are all within the radius of the previous bushes. Therefore, by analyzing the radius and width of shrubs, researchers can determine how many cycles they have grown in. At present, they estimate that these asexual plants originated at the end of the ice age 6.5438+0.3 million years ago. (