Svergies Television's local news program "Gavledala" said tests on three spruce tree root samples showed the roots were 5,000-, 6,000-, and 8,000-years-old. Researcher Leif Kullman of Umea University told The Local the individual trees would not be more than a few hundred years old but were generated from the same genetic root system.

"There is constant turnover in what is actually growing above ground," he said. "But genetically, the trees growing today are the same as those from thousands of years ago."

The oldest living individual tree -- a bristlecone pine in California's White Mountains -- is estimated to be 4,733-years-old, the report said.