10 most magnificent trees in the world

8/3/2019 10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World

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10 Most Magnificent Trees in the World.

ByAlexinNeatorama Exclusiveson Mar 21, 2007 at 1:20 amEuro Model Trains

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"A tree is a wonderful living organism which gives shelter, food,

warmth and protection to all living things. It even gives shade to

those who wield an axe to cut it down"Buddha.

There are probably hundreds of majestic and magnificent trees in the worldof these, some areparticularly special:

10. Lone Cypress in Monterey

(Image credit:bdinphoenix[flickr])
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(Image credit:mikemac29[flickr])

Buffeted by the cold Pacific Ocean wind,the scragglyLone Cypress[wiki] (Cupressusmacrocarpa) in Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula, California, isnt a particularly large tree. It

makes up for its small size, however, with its iconic status as a stunningly beautiful tree insplendid isolation, framed by an even more beautiful background of the Pacific Ocean.

9. Circus Trees

As a hobby, bean farmerAxel Erlandson[wiki] shaped treeshe pruned, bent, and grafted treesinto fantastic shapes and called them "Circus Trees." For example, to make this "Basket Tree"arborsculpture, Erlandson planted six sycamore trees in a circle and then grafted them together toform the diamond patterns.
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Basket Tree (Image credit:jpeepz[flickr])
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The two-legged tree (Image credit: Vladi22,Wikipedia)
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Ladder tree (Image credit:Arborsmith)
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Axel Erlandson underneath one of his arborsculpture (Image credit: Wilma Erlandson,Cabinet

Magazine)
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Erlandson was very secretive and refused to reveal his methods on how to grow the Circus Trees(he even carried out his graftings behind screens to protect against spies!) and carried the secretsto his grave.

The trees were later bought by millionaire Michael Bonfante, who transplanted them to his

amusement parkBonfante Gardensin Gilroy in 1985.

8. Giant Sequoias: General Sherman
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(Image credit:Humpalumpa[flickr])

Giant Sequoias[wiki] (Sequoiadendron giganteum), which only grow in Sierra Nevada,California, are the worlds biggest trees (in terms of volume). The biggest isGeneral Sherman[wiki] in the Sequoia National Parkone behemoth of a tree at 275 feet (83.8 m), over 52,500

cubic feet of volume (1,486 m), and over 6000 tons in weight.General Sherman is approximately 2,200 years oldand each year, the tree adds enough woodto make a regular 60-foot tall tree. Its no wonder that naturalist John Muir said "The Big Tree isNatures forest masterpiece, and so far as I know, the greatest of living things."

For over a century there was a fierce competition for the title of the largest tree: besides GeneralSherman, there isGeneral Grant[wiki] at Kings Canyon National Park, which actually has a larger circumference (107.5 feet / 32.77 m vs. Shermans 102.6 feet / 31.27 m).

In 1921, a team of surveyors carefully measured the two

giantswith their data, and according to thecomplex American Forestry Association systemofjudging a tree, General Grant should have been award the title of largest treehowever, tosimplify the matter, it was later determined that in this case, volume, not point system, should bethe determining factor.

7. Coast Redwood: Hyperion and Drive-Thru Trees

There is another sequoia species (not to be confused with Giant Sequoia) that isquite remarkable: theCoast Redwood[wiki] (Sequoia sempervirens), the tallest trees in theworld.
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The reigning champion is a tree calledHyperionin the Redwood National Park, identified byresearcher Chris Atkins and amateur naturalist Michael Taylor in 2006. Measuring over 379 feet(155.6 115 m) tall, Hyperion beat out the previous record holderStratosphere Giant[wiki] in theHumboldt Redwoods State Park (at 370 feet / 112.8 m).

The scientists arent talking about the exact location of Hyperion: the terrain is difficult, and theydont want a rush of visitors to come and trample the trees root system.

[Image:The Stratosphere Giant- still an impressive specimen, previously the world's tallest treeuntil dethroned by Hyperion in 2006.]

Thats not all thats amazing about the Coast Redwood: there are four giant California redwoods

big enough that you can drive your car through them!

The most famous of the drive-through trees is theChandelier Tree[wiki] in Leggett, California.Its a 315 foot tall redwood tree, with a 6 foot wide by 9 foot tall hole cut through its base in the

1930s.
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Chandelier Tree. (Image credit:hlh-abg[flickr])

6. Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse
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Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse (Image credit:Old trees in Netherlands & Europe)
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(Image credit:dm1795[flickr])
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(Image credit:Luc Doudet)

TheChne-Chapelle (Chapel-Oak) of Allouville-Bellefosseis the most famous tree in Franceactually, its more than just a tree: its a building and a religious monument all in one.

In 1669, lAbbe du Detroit and du Cerceau decided to build a chapel in (at that time) a 500 yearsold or so oak (Quercus robur) tree made hollow by a lightning bolt. The priests built a small altarto the Virgin Mary. Later on, a second chapel and a staircase were added.

Now, parts of the tree are dead, the crown keeps becoming smaller and smaller every year, andparts of the trees bark, which fell off due to old age, are covered by protective oak shingles.Poles and cables support the aging tree, which in fact, may not live much longer. As a symbol,however, it seems that the Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse may live on forever.

5. Quaking Aspen: Pando (The Trembling Giant)
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Quaking Aspen (Image:Wikipedia)
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Aspen grove (Image credit:scottks1[flickr])
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Quaking Aspen in winter (Image credit:darkmatter[flickr])Pando[wiki] or the Trembling Giant in Utah is actually a colony of a single Quaking Aspen(Populus tremuloides) tree. All of the trees (technically, "stems") in this colony are geneticallyidentical (meaning, theyre exact clones of one another). In fact, they are all a part of a single

living organism with an enormous underground root system.

Pando, which is Latin for "I Spread," is composed of about 47,000 stems spread throughout 107acres of land. It estimated to weigh 6,600 tons, making it the heaviest known organism. Althoughthe average age of the individual stems are 130 years, the entire organism is estimated to beabout 80,000 years old!

4. Montezuma Cypress: The Tule Tree
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The Tule Tree Towers over a church next to it (Image credit:jubilohaku[flickr])

Full width of the Tule Tree (Image credit:Gengiskanhg,Wikipedia)
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Close-up of the trees gnarled trunk. Local legends say that you can make out animals likejaguars and elephants in the trunk, giving the tree the nickname of "the Tree of Life" (Image

credit:jvcluis[flickr])

El rbol del Tule[wiki] ("The Tule Tree") is an especially large Montezuma cypress (Taxodiummucronatum) near the city of Oaxaca, Mexico. This tree has the largest trunk girth at 190 feet(58 m) and trunk diameter at 37 feet (11.3 m). The Tule tree is so thick that people say you dont

hug this tree, it hugs you instead!

For a while, detractors argued that it was actually three trees masquerading as onehowever,

careful DNA analysis confirmed that it is indeed one magnificent tree.In 1994, the tree (and Mexican pride) were in jeopardy: the leaves were sickly yellow and therewere dead branches everywhere- the tree appeared to be dying. When tree "doctors" were calledin, they diagnosed the problem as dying of thirst. The prescription? Give it water. Sure enough,the tree soon recovered after a careful watering program was followed.

3. Banyan Tree: Sri Maha Bodhi Tree

The Banyan tree is named after "banians" or Hindu traders who carry out their business under thetree. Even if you have never heard of a Banyan tree (it was the tree used by Robinson Crusoe forhis treehouse), youd still recognize it. The shape of the giant tree is unmistakable: it has amajestic canopy with aerial roots running from the branches to the ground.
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Banyan tree (Image credit:Diorama Sky[flickr])

Closer view of the Banyan aerial root structure (Image credit:BillyCrafton[flickr])
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If you were thinking that the Banyan tree looks like the trees whose roots snake through the ruinsof the Ta Prohm temple like tentacles of the jungle (Lara Croft, anyone?) at Ankor, Cambodia ,youd be right!

Banyan tree (or is it silk-cotton tree?) in the ruins of Ta Prohm, Ankor, Cambodia(Image Credit:Casual Chin[flickr])

One of the most famous species of Banyan, called theSacred Fig[wiki] or Bo tree, is theSriMaha Bodhi[wiki] tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. It is said that the tree was grown from acutting from the original tree under which Buddha became enlightened in the 6th century BC.

Planted in 288 BC, it is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world, with a definitiveplanting date!
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(Image credit:Images of Ceylon)

(Image credit:Wikipedia)
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2. Bristlecone Pine: Methuselah and Prometheus, the OldestTrees in the World.

Methuselah Grove (Image Credit:NOVA Online)

Bristlecone pine grove in which Prometheus grew (Image credit: James R. Bouldin,Wikipedia)

The oldest living tree in the world is a White Mountains, California, bristlecone pine (Pinuslongaeva) namedMethuselah[wiki], after the Biblical figure who lived to 969 years old. The
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Methuselah tree, found at 11,000 feet above sea level, is 4,838 years old it is not only theoldest tree but also the oldest living non-clonal organism in the world.

Before Methuselah was identified as the worlds oldest tree by Edmund Schulman in 1957,

people thought that the Giant Sequoias were the worlds oldest trees at about 2,000 years old.

Schulman used a borer to obtain a core sample to count the growth rings of various bristleconepines, and found over a dozen trees over 4,000 years old.

The story ofPrometheus[wiki] is even more interesting: in 1964,Donald R. Currey[wiki], thena graduate student, was taking core samples from a tree named Prometheus. His boring toolbroke inside the tree, so he asked for permission from the US Forest Service to cut it down andexamine the full cross section of the wood. Surprisingly the Forest Service agreed! When theyexamined the tree, Prometheus turned out to be about 5,000 years old, which would have made itthe worlds oldest tree when the scientist unwittingly killed it!

Stump of the Prometheus Tree. (Image Credit: James R. Bouldin,Wikipedia)

Today, to protect the trees from the inquisitive traveler, the authorities are keeping their locationsecret (indeed, there are no photos identifying Methuselah for fear of vandalism).

1. Baobab

The amazingbaobab[wiki] (Adansonia) or monkey bread tree can grow up to nearly 100 feet(30 m) tall and 35 feet (11 m) wide. Their defining characteristic: their swollen trunk are actuallywater storagethe baobab tree can store as much as 31,700 gallon (120,000 l) of water to endureharsh drought conditions.
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Baobab trees are native to Madagascar (its the countrys national tree!), mainland Africa, and

Australia. A cluster of "the grandest of all" baobab trees (Adansonia grandidieri) can be found inthe Baobab Avenue, near Morondava, in Madagascar:

(Image credit: Fox-Talbot,Wikipedia)

(Image credit:plizzba[flickr])
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(Image credit:Daniel Montesino[flickr])

In Ifaty, southwestern Madagascar, other baobabs take the form of bottles, skulls, and eventeapots:
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Teapot baobab (Image credit:Gilles Croissant)

The baobab trees in Africa are amazing as well:
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Baobab in Tanzania (Image credit:telethon[flickr])

Baobab near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Image credit:ironmanix[flickr])

There are many practical uses of baobab trees, like for a toilet:
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A toilet built inside a baobab tree in the Kayila Lodge, Zambia

(Image credit:Steve Makin[flickr])

and even for a prison:
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A "Prison Baob" tree in Western Australia (Image credit:yewenyi[flickr])

Bonus: Tree That Owns Itself
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Son of the Tree That Owns Itself (Image Credit:Bloodofox,Wikipedia)

Legend has it that theTree That Owns Itself[wiki], a white oak in Athens, Georgia was givenownership of itself and the surrounding land by Dr. William Henry Jackson in 1820! The originaltree had died long ago, but a new tree (Son of The Tree That Owns Itself) was planted at thesame location from one of its acorns.

Bonus 2: The Lonely Tree of Tnr
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The Tree of Tnr in the 1970s, before a truck crashed into it (Image credit:Peter Krohn)

TheTree of Tnror LAbre du Tnrwas the worlds most isolated tree the solitary acacia,which grew in the Sahara desert in Niger, Africa, was the only tree within more than 250 miles(400 km) around.

The tree was the last surviving member of a group of acacias that grew when the deser t wasnt asdry. When scientists dug a hole near the tree, they found its roots went down as deep as 120 feet(36 m) below to the water table!

Apparently, being the only tree in that part of the wide-open desert (remember: there wasntanother tree for 250 miles around), wasnt enough to stop a drunk Libyan truck driver fromdriving his truck into it, knocking it down and killing it!
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Now, a metal sculpture was placed in its spot to commemorate the Lonely Tree of Tnr:

(Image credit:Nomads Land,main website)

Ill be the first to acknowledge that this list is far from complete: there are many more

magnificent trees in the world (for instance, see theList of Famous Trees[wiki]). If you haveany addition of noteworthy tree (and stories about trees), please leave it in the comment section.
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10 most magnificent trees in the world

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