Can You Carbon Date Trees?

The development of the tree rings is the event that is dated when using radiocarbon to determine the age of a piece of wood or charcoal. Any charcoal or wood sample that is carbon dated will have an apparent age, which may result in inaccuracies of up to hundreds of years unless short-lived tree species or twigs are picked for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon dating uses a radioactive isotope called radiocarbon.