Some Unusual Trees (opens in new tab)

Related: There’s no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically)

https://eukaryotewritesblog.com/2021/05/02/theres-no-such-th...

An unusual tree I remember fondly as a child, is in the Karri forests of south-western Australia[1] .. we'd driven through a wild and stormy afternoon to get to it, a friend of my mother had gotten permission and the cabin key, as it was closed to the public then - and so it was that we were climbing the slippery, seemingly fragile iron posts that ringed its trunk[2] all the way to the top to find ourselves cramped into a fire lookout cabin .. we camped overnight in tight sleeping bags with a cold can of baked beans and yesterdays toast for breakfast, and I will always remember the lissajous swing of the thing, carefully turning the resonance of the wind into a constant figure 8, around and around, sometimes in minute increments gradually widening and slowing .. but every now and then, a big fast sweep would happen on the wind, and the tree would translate it through an odd crack into a bigger leverage, and that sleep that was so close gets pushed just a bit beyond the conscious horizon as one wondered, literally, if the tree was finally going to fall .. after a hundred or so years .. but still, just a few hours later, all is calm, the bush is slowly thawing out, the relentless sun conquers the horizon, the iron rungs dry out, the trees leaves steam in the morning sunrise, this great behemoths strength feeling safer and safer as we take gravitys' step .. and we are just too soon back on the ground and off for some surf out at Yallingup or so ..

A beautiful living thing which my perception of its rythmic swing has lived on with me for decades. Trees are lovely.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_diversicolor

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloucester_Tree

I would say the Eucalyptus tree, planted all over the world but native to Australia, is quite unusual.

Young Eucalyptus trees have leaves that are rounded and are arranged opposite to one another. However, when mature the leaves of a Eucalyptus are lance-like and are arranged in an alternating fashion. This to me is quite unusual.

As an unusual tree I’ve always liked the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. It was known only from fossil record and thought extinct until a small grove was found in a mountain valley in China in 1946. There was a wave of popularity and a bunch were planted worldwide, which are now mature and easy to find if you want to see one. They grow well and very quickly in cool to temperate climates. They have little tiny deciduous needle-leaves that don't need to be raked, and grow tall and symmetrical without spreading too wide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasequoia_glyptostroboides

I started 2 sprouts I bought by mail order, after one growing season they were nearly 3 feet tall. I got them mail order from Jonsteen Nursery, they have been specializing in various redwood saplings for many years. https://sequoiatrees.com/

The traveller tree looked the most interesting, like a peacock's feather.

https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2017/12/12/the-travel...

Related and also interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individual_trees

The UK has quite a few ancient yew trees. Some may be over 2000 years old. Often they are in church grounds (because ones that weren't got cut down to make long bows perhaps?).

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2025/08/ancient-yew-tr...

Since we're talking trees. Only trees that grow in an area with distinct warm/cold cycles have rings, tropical trees don't and the only way to tell the age of most tropical trees is to have planted it yourself

I was in Brazil for the first time last year and was very impressed with the trees.

Two examples right from downtown São Paulo,

https://kenschutte.com/lima-to-rio-by-bus/images/trees.jpg

On mobile, this website seems to prevent you from pinch zooming in, which makes it slightly inconvenient to quickly zoom into the photos of the trees.

One of my favorite trees is Couroupita guianensis, known by a few other names (ayahuma, cannonball tree). When mature the trunks grow some beautiful flowers that can cover the trunk (wiki link has a few good pics). Native to South America, it's a revered tree in Amazonian plant shamanism (all parts of the plant can be used medicinally; spiritually it is one of the big ones, an entire school of its own). It made its way to India in the 1800s where it holds a lot of renown and importance now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couroupita_guianensis

Wasn't sure which kind of trees to expect. :D

A while back I read this book "The Secret Life of Trees: How They Live and Why They Matter" from Colin Tudge and I was blown away by the fact that Mangrove roots effectively breath with the rhythm of tide. As the water recedes, change in pressure and the air is drawn into the pores. As the water comes in, pressure pushes stale air out and seals the pores. Trees are beautiful.

Are you sure the Madagascar traveller's tree is not a camouflaged mobile network antenna?

I like to imagine aliens visiting earth and walking straight past us and communing with Pando.

> Recent 2024 analysis confirmed it is at least 16,000 years old, with possibilities ranging up to 80,000 years, making it one of the oldest living organisms.

There is something fascinating about someone getting a copy of Encyclopedia Brititanica, reading about trees, and then going to Wikipedia for pictures and to fill out details.

I remember when a Century Plant just sprouted in my back yard. In the span of a month, it grew 8 meters. It looks very alien in the process.

[0]: https://imgur.com/gallery/what-kind-of-plant-is-this-grew-le...

Of course one reads a (nice) post like this and must add one's favorite not on the list. Here's mine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fouquieria_columnaris

For those curious, the world's tallest known living tree is Hyperion in Redwood National Park at 381.3 feet (116.22 meters). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_(tree)

In Calabria — the very south of Italy — there this[0] 1000-years-old plane tree.

[0]https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platano_di_Vrisi

Highly recommend a series on Lodoicea (aka Double coconut or Coco de mer) from the Weird Explorer yt channel: https://youtu.be/GqicsIDYmgU

> but you know wood? You know when you hold something in your hand, and it’s made of wood, and you can tell that? Yeah, that thing.

everyone should have a copy of Identifying Wood on their metal bookshelf

I highly recommend this 12min video "Trees Are So Weird"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSch_NgZpQs

This is (was?) the advantage of a printed encyclopedia - one that I've never really been able to replicate scrolling wikipedia. I think it has more to do with the limitations and lack of linking than lack of information (each of these trees has a wikipedia article).

A wikipedia dive session is likely to get more and more specific into trees (attacked by twees!); an encyclopedia flip session is more likely to go across a wide variety of subjects.

that monolith tree gives me engineering anxiety, you mean all 20,000 shade users are depending on that singleton tree?

I expected and wanted tree data structures.

And now... No. 1: The Larch

The trees are not unusual at all for the people living in tropical climates. Fun trees Yes but unusual no. Most people of the world live in tropical climates so for most these are not unusual