The first known trees appeared about 380 million years ago. At that time, some forms of plant life, which at that time lived exclusively in water, developed structures capable of surviving on land and in dry conditions in the face of close competition and scarcity of resources. In this way, plants would have conquered the terrestrial environment and would have evolved from simple plants to more complex ones, such as trees, with their roots, rigid trunk and leaves.
Wattieza are considered by the scientific community to be the oldest arboreal plants. This first species of tree was more than 8 meters tall and grew on the American continent during the Devonian geological period, about 380 million years ago.
Prior to these early trees were the prototaxites. These formed trunk-like structures that could reach up to 9 meters long and one meter wide. They can actually be considered terrestrial fungi that populated the Earth from the Silurian to the Devonian, between 420 and 370 million years ago, when trees did not yet exist. At this time, the Earth was relatively warm and stable, which allowed for a rapid evolution of plants. Plants were increasing in diversity and size on land, and progressively evolving to survive away from water.
It was competition for light that caused plants to grow taller and wider, eventually evolving leaves. Competition for water and minerals caused plants to grow deeper, eventually evolving elaborate roots. Internally, plants developed tissues to support the increased height and transport water and minerals from roots to leaves. With that, across the landscape, the first tree-like plants begin to appear.
To get a comparative idea, we have searched for the oldest dated olive tree still in production. This is the Vouves olive tree, which is more than 4,000 years old.
This ancient olive tree is located in the village of Ano Vouves on the Greek island of Crete. It was declared a protected natural monument in 1997, and every year it continues to produce olives that are used to make olive oil.
It took 385 million years of evolution in nature to produce extra virgin olive oil.