Radiocarbon analyses on 16 specimens of the Leadwood tree, Combretum imberbe, showed that they live for several hundred years. The oldest specimen was more than 1000 years old when it died and had an extremely slow radial growth rate of 0.33 mm yr(-1), while a tree in a more favourable moisture position had a growth rate of 2 mm yr(-1) and lived for some 300 years. Keywords: Leadwood trees, Combretum imberbe, Radiocarbon dating.