March 25, 2006

Trees, Old and Odd

Until seeing these, I'd no idea such big, handsome trees grew in Mexico. The baobab, upsidedown tree, or bottletree, is unique in appearance, and may grow impressively large. While as far as the eye can see, you may see one banyan tree. And it would never do to ignore the ancient and notable trees of the British Isles.

posted by beeswacky 18 years ago
  • I think that I shall never see An FPP as lovely as a tree!
  • Absolutely incredible. Thanks for the post, bees!
  • Another picture of the Santa Maria del Tule cypress that maybe gives a better idea of how massive it is. My favorite big local (Boston area) tree is a huge old Camperdown Elm at Mt. Auburn Cemetery. The outer branches weep to the ground and because the whole thing's 50+ feet in diameter it's like being in a room when you're underneath. It's a very peaceful and cool spot in the shade on a summer day.
  • That's an excellent picture, timefactor. This thread has more links concerning trees.
  • I cry now. )))
  • No. 1: the Larch
  • mmmm thank you, those are beautiful and magnificent and thrilling!
  • The Arbol del Tule is a Taxodium mucronatum. I never seen this before, it's beautiful. Fantastic post beeswacky
  • Seven species of birds and two species of bees nest in the tree. Kro-bar, I was fascinated to read that article. Thanks.
  • Trees are great.
  • What a wonderful post. Thanks, beeswack.
  • Beeswack-Y!! I'm not sayin' you're whack, dog.
  • Excellent stuff. Interested to see the picture of the impressive "Queen Elizabeth Oak". There's one of those in Greenwich Park, but it is really just a few dead pieces held together by ivy. I wonder if she made a habit of hiding in hollow oaks?
  • For a thousand years and a thousand years more hold fast in this river of soil, awash in this sea of air. Reach for bedrock and sunlight in this singular place.
  • oh how i missed the baobabs
  • I don't supose they let you climb the tree. It looks so lovely and climbable. Where I grew up, we had an oak that wasn't that old (only a couple hundred years or less), and wasn't that wide (maybe 6' diametre), but it was so very tall. Several stories, and no branches at all until quite near the top. Just this massive massive trunk going straight up and then branching out - it was like an ordinary tree just scaled larger.
  • Enjoyed this very much Bees. Was rathered sobered by the thought that I see more trees on the internet than in real life these days. Not a happy situation.
  • When, in days to come, you have the time, perhaps you'll plant a few, Abiezer.
  • Springtime is here In the toppart of Terra For planting a tier Of trees here and there-ah A sweet maple, an oak All rhymes to an era Inspire the folk With orange and sierra Moochas grassy for the linky, bees!
  • It looks like a giant knob.
  • Wonderful post, Bees. And the rest of the links are filled with leafy goodness, also.
  • ... leafy goodness ... See tree spinach.
  • Wow 6ft. tall spinach! *ties on lobster bib, licks chops*
  • I have to confess that one of my favorite trees are those crappy ol' water suckin' cottonwoods. Sometimes they're the only tree around for miles in the desert, and they always mean shade, and hopefully some sort of water, and a place to take a breather, even if the cows have been there first. The sound and smell of cottonwood leaves is very evocative of a hot summer day.
  • I hope that I would moo like I should Under the shade of a big cottonwood - I'd drink in the water and the smell of the leaves And scurry the dust with my tail and the breeze
  • a friend of mine worked with emotionally/behaviorally/mentally challenged children and they were drawing trees by tracing their hands (not unlike the world-famous trace-yr-hand n draw a turkey technique...) which some how led to this child 'dissing' my friend by telling her to 'talk to the tree, talk to the tree'...
  • Trees W. S. Merwin I am looking at trees they may be one of the things I will miss most from the earth though many of the ones I have seen already I cannot remember and though I seldom embrace the ones I see and have never been able to speak with one I listen to them tenderly their names have never touched them they have stood round my sleep and when it was forbidden to climb them they have carried me in their branches
  • Mark Haddon Trees They stand in parks and graveyards and gardens. Some of them are taller than department stores, yet they do not draw attention to themselves. You will be fitting a heated towel rail one day and see, through the louvre window, a shoal of olive-green fish changing direction in the air that swims above the little gardens. Or you will wake at your aunt's cottage, your sleep broken by a coal train on the empty hill as the oaks roar in the wind off the channel. Your kindness to animals, your skill at the clarinet, these are accidental things. We lost this game a long way back. Look at you. You're reading poetry. Outside the spring air is thick with the seeds of their children.
  • Tule Tree, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca Mexico I may have missed it in a previous link, but Yow!
  • Pete, don't be surprised if someone hits you with a Kro-Bar for posting that!
  • pete, how much have ye had to drink?
  • Hm? Wha-Hey! Well look at that. Huh! Small world eh? Hehe! *big, dopey grin* *runs*
  • Heh. I figure no monkey (or in the case of the petebests, horde of monkeys) can long resist a grand tall tree.
  • Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Monkeys and . . other . . Monkeys . . . The Champion Trees!!
  • But where are the chestnut trees of yesteryear?
  • Horse chestnut trees? Lovely things, and great ammo sources!
  • Not the same tree. Though conkers are of course an Armament to give anyone paws in the hands of the Adept.
  • Tree of Ténéré "The Ténéré wastelands of northeastern Niger were once populated by a forest of trees. By the 20th century, desertification had wiped out all but one solitary acacia. The Tree of Ténéré, as it came to be called, had no companions for 400 km in every direction. Its roots reached nearly 40 m deep into the sand. In 1973, the tree was knocked over by a drunken Libyan truck driver. It has been replaced by a simple metal sculpture. " That is so sad and yet kinda sweet. Kinda like humanity, eh?
  • Replacing a tree with a metal hat-and-coat rack - more handiwork from the Antigenius! Wonder if The Werzog could do something about this?
  • While as far as the eye can see, you may see one banyan tree. That was the idea behind Hothouse by Brian Aldiss, one of my fave sf books. It also featured intelligent parasitic morel fungi, interstellar spiders, and carnivorous seaweed. What's not to like?
  • where the werzog's sweat drops, oaks sprout. where the werzog pees, forests engulf the puny cities of humankind. Hay gets werzog-fever.
  • The biggest is General Sherman [wiki] in the Sequoia National Park - one behemoth of a tree at 275 feet (83.8 m), over 52,500 cubic feet of volume (1,486 m³), and over 6000 tons in weight. General Sherman is approximately 2,200 years old - and each year, the tree adds enough wood to make a regular 60-foot tall tree. It’s no wonder that naturalist John Muir said "The Big Tree is Nature’s forest masterpiece, and so far as I know, the greatest of living things." WOW. Although I wish they'd leave the soldier stuff out of it
  • The story of Prometheus [wiki] is even more interesting: in 1964, Donald R. Currey [wiki], then a graduate student, was taking core samples from a tree named Prometheus. His boring tool broke inside the tree, so he asked for permission from the US Forest Service to cut it down and examine the full cross section of the wood. Surprisingly the Forest Service agreed! When they examined the tree, Prometheus turned out to be about 5,000 years old, which would have made it the world’s oldest tree when the scientist unwittingly killed it! .
  • Sometimes people are teh suck.
  • Yeah, and then we have... The Tree of Ténéré or L’Abre du Ténéré was the world’s 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 desert wasn’t as dry. 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 wasn’t another tree for 250 miles around), wasn’t enough to stop a drunk Libyan truck driver from driving his truck into it, knocking it down and killing it! . Great link, fish tick!
  • Sometimes people are teh suck Naw, it's okay if we kill it for SCIENCE. You know, all tasty Japanese whale-style. Prometheus sushi: kinda splintery.
  • *nonchalantly picks whale from teeth using Beothuk-bone toothpick*
  • Great story. Makes me think of that "nothing new under the sun" quote.
  • What a discovery! Gives me goosebumps to think about those trees. I'm glad they made it out to tell the world. Those fellas were idiots. Could have died.
  • Meetings with Remarkable Trees is showing again on the BBC. Charming television - ten minute slot that talks about one specific tree.
  • *seeths with jealousy that I don't get BBC programs
  • Yes, that's really not cricket chaps. Let's make sure to broadcast those on this side of the pond, what?
  • L’olivier millénaire de Roquebrune estimated at 2000 years old. A high resolution photo. More remarkable trees in France. Unfortunately this one, a huge chestnut in a park near my house, is "structurally threatened" :-( They've cordoned it off and cut some limbs but no news yet on its viability.
  • Great website, Pleggy. Can't they do SOMETHING to save that beautiful, beautiful tree. Amazing to think of the 2000 years of French history these trees have seen.