system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is there any way to accurately test/verify the age of a living bonsai tree?

I have heard of carbon dating on dead things, but never anything about living things. In bonsai i hear claims all the time that trees are "X" years old, and want to know. Is there any way to verify those claims scientifically?
gpt
Yes. You have to drill through it/kill it/sample it.

But anything substantial enough to test will be a pretty big chunk out of that tiny tree.

The closest you can really get is estimating it based on price and what you know about the person.