These amazing trees. The Ten Most Amazing Trees in the World
Able to present amazing surprises to a person. They will be discussed below.
To date, more than 60,000 species of trees are known. Among them there are bread, dairy, soap and even sausage trees. In this article, you will learn many interesting facts about the most unusual trees growing in different places of our planet.
Breadfruit
One of the most unusual trees is breadfruit. It grows in tropical countries, however, its homeland is New Guinea and the territory of Oceania. They learned about it only in the 17th century thanks to English sailors.
Sailors watched with surprise as the indigenous people eat the fruits of an unusual tree instead of bread. Then the sailors took seedlings of an amazing plant and planted them in their area.
However, nothing good came of it. In the 18th century, it was successfully bred on. The fruits of this plant became one of the main products that fed the slaves.
The breadfruit tree has a strong trunk and an extensive crown. It grows rapidly and can reach a height of 25 meters. The length of the fruit is about 30-35 centimeters, and the weight is about 4-5 kg.
Outwardly, they are somewhat similar to melons and have a pimply surface. They grow in clusters, both on the trunk and at the base of large branches. Inside them is a sweet pulp.
Breadfruit is able to go without water for several months, and also withstand heat up to 40 degrees Celsius.
An interesting fact is that this unusual tree can bear fruit for 9 months a year. Every year, about 600-700 fruits are harvested from one tree, for as long as 70 years.
As mentioned earlier, breadfruit is used in cooking: they are boiled, fried, ground into flour or eaten raw.
They taste somewhat like potatoes.
However, they spoil rather quickly, so they have to be eaten within a short period of time. But if you make crackers out of them, they will be stored for quite a long time.
The natives of Samoa came up with an interesting way to preserve this "bread": they wrap the fruits in banana leaves, and then simply bury them in the soil.
Soon, they begin to ferment, turning into an alcohol-containing mass, which allows them not to deteriorate for a long time.
The remaining parts of this tree are also widely used on the farm: its leaves are fed to livestock, and the seeds are fried.
milk tree
The milk tree is an extremely unusual tree. It is also called "brosium" or "cow tree". Today it can be seen in South and Central America, as well as in Asian countries.
Often it grows up to 30 meters in height. The very name of the tree suggests that it produces juice, for which it is actually grown. Unlike other plants, it is not poisonous, but rather useful and pleasant to the taste.
Outwardly, this juice resembles regular milk, only it is thicker and has a peculiar aroma. Even in the hottest time, the milk does not deteriorate up to a whole week, if it is first boiled over a fire.
The first Europeans to learn about the milk tree were the Spanish conquerors. Arriving at their home, they talked about a marvelous tree that can be milked. An incision is made on the trunk, and a vessel is placed under it, where this unusual juice actually flows. At one time, you can collect 3-4 liters of milk.
Local natives drink such juice in the same way as we drink cow's or goat's milk. In addition, wax can be obtained from it, suitable for the manufacture of candles and chewing gum.
Candleberry
Candle tree or edible parmentiera, so named because of unusual shape their fruits. Besides the fact that they look like candles, they also contain oil, which makes them burn very well.
The candle tree grows in the tropical jungle. People have learned to use it for medical purposes.
Soapberry
An unusual soap tree grows in tropical forests Asia and America. In that interesting plant, and especially in its fruits, contains many saponins - substances with detergent properties. Once upon a time, Indians successfully bleached fabric with the bark of this tree.
Today, the soap tree is widely used in cosmetology. Its seeds are extremely hard, so rosaries and various wooden ornaments are made from them.
Its fruits are called soap nuts, as they may well serve as a substitute for washing powder. They are absolutely hypoallergenic, do not smell, and also do not cause any harm.
sausage tree
Sausage tree or kigelia, grows in African countries. It grows up to 10 m and has a spreading crown. Large flowers and unusual fruits grow on it, having the shape of a sausage 50-60 cm long. In Europe, they learned about this tree only a couple of centuries ago.
Interestingly, sausage trees grow only singly and never next to each other. With the onset of heat, they shed their leaves to save water, and with the advent of the rainy season, leaves reappear on their branches.
In the daytime, unusual flowers are completely closed, and at sunset they open, showing their scarlet inflorescences. The disadvantage of these colors is only their bad smell needed to attract pollinators.
Before eating the fruits of this unusual tree, they must be subjected to heat treatment, as they are very poisonous. An interesting fact is that the locals have learned to make an alcoholic drink out of them.
The fruits have an incredibly hard skin. So, in order to get seeds from them, it is necessary to initially dry the fruit and only then split it with an ax.
Today we want to bring to your attention the most unusual trees growing on our Earth. As you know, the most common plant on our planet that deserves a special place in our lives is a tree. There are more than 100,000 species of them growing on our land. Where and how a person just does not use it, but we pay attention to the trees around us only if they differ in some way from their neighbors either in size or in bizarre shapes or flowers and fruits.
- Dragon tree (Dracaenacinnabari) or more precisely cinnabar-red dracaena. It grows on the island of Socotra. Outwardly, this miracle of nature resembles an umbrella turned inside out with a green hat of foliage and a massive trunk. The height of an adult tree is 10 m. The dragon tree got its name because of the resinous red juice. Flowers near the tree appear during the monsoon rains in the form of branched panicles.
- Australian baobab - "Bottle Tree" or Adansonia Gregory (Adansonia Gregorii), named for its resemblance to a glass container - a bottle. It grows in the mountains of Namibia, its milky juice is very poisonous, in ancient times hunters lubricated their arrows with it. During the flowering period, beautiful pink-red flowers appear on the branches of the bottle tree.
- The largest tree in the world grows in the "Giant Forest" national park"Sequoia", California, USA in the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Sierra Nevada, California). The height of the long-lived sequoia "General Sherman" (GeneralSherman), according to various estimates, is about 2800 years old, is 83 meters, the girth of the trunk is more than 24 meters, the circumference of the crown is about 33 meters. But what is the most interesting tree is still growing and increasing its trunk diameter by 1.5 cm per year. But in 2006, due to heavy snowfalls, one of the branches of the tree broke off, the diameter of which is about two meters and the length is more than 30 meters, but this incident did not affect its status as the "Largest Tree in the World" growing in our time. But the tallest tree growing here in California is the Hyperion tree, its height reaches 115.5 meters, thereby exceeding the height of the Statue of Liberty. These are the giants on our planet.
- Madagascar baobab or Adansonia Grandidieri (Adansonia Grandidieri), a mighty tree about 80 meters high and about 25 meters in girth, grows on the island of Madagascar. Some specimens of baobabs have been growing for over 1000 years. The even and smooth trunk of the baobab accumulates a large amount of water, so it easily tolerates drought. The white flowers of the baobab, although they are short-lived when flowering, having bloomed, live only for a day, but they have been awarded the attention of the treasury of Madagascar. On the 100-franc note they are depicted, the flowers of the Madagascar baobab.
- Baobab Sunland South Africa located near Modjadjiskloof, the tree is hollow inside, so in 1933 it was equipped with a mini bar for 15-20 seats. The tree itself is not tall, about 20 meters, but its age is simply impressive, it is over 6000 years old.
- Tree of Life, Bahrain. Among the big desert, one single green tree 9.75 meters high lives just in extreme conditions for over 400 years now. The locals called this place the Garden of Eden, it is still not known exactly how the tree survives in these conditions, there is an assumption that its roots go deep into the ground, and from there they take life-giving moisture for growth and life. UNESCO has taken this Tree of Life under its protection, including it in the list of "World Heritage Sites".
- Rainbow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta) with a beautiful multi-colored trunk - a tree, is also a long-liver of our planet and quite tall, sometimes growing up to 100 meters in height or more. The beautiful coloring of the bark comes from the constant peeling off of old strips of bark, exposing bright salad, young bark. Over time, the bark roughens and dulls, turning dark green, then blue and purple, and then changing from orange-red to crimson-brown. These are the constant transformations and updates that occur with the eucalyptus bark, constantly changing its appearance.
- With extraordinary fruits like cannonballs in South America Cannon Tree (Couroupitaguianensis) grows. The tree is very prolific, producing 200-300 kernels with a diameter of 15-25 centimeters. A favorite tree of many subtropical botanical gardens, as it attracts with its original fruits that have stuck around almost the entire trunk of the tree. But getting close to it, and even more so standing under it, is dangerous, there is a risk of being hit by an impressive core.
- The Great Banyan or Ficus Bengal, this tree, which has the largest crown area, grows in the Indian Botanical Garden in the city of Khauri. Looking from the side at this green miracle of nature, you will not immediately understand that in fact it is not a grove or a shady oak forest, but one tree. This handsome man has another name "Forest Tree", as it has not one, but several thousand trunks at once. It is about 250 years old and occupies a rather impressive area of 1.5 hectares and has 3300 aerial roots.
An innumerable number of amazing trees grow on the territory of our planet. We will introduce you to some of them in this article.
We are all used to how the trees around us look like in everyday life, so if we see something that is not like them, at first we can’t even believe that such unusual trees exist - but they do exist, they grow beautifully where we are gone and the locals take it for granted
Take, for example, the baobab - well, who among us in our right mind would call such a tree "ordinary"? Moreover, he does not even have rings to determine the age - scientists have to be content with the results of radiocarbon analysis when determining it.
No less interesting is another type of baobab, familiar to Madagascar landscapes - the teapot baobab. it is not a separate species - any of the six species of baobab growing in Madagascar can take the form of a teapot or a bottle. What is the reason for this is unknown, but most likely in this way the trees take care of moisture, which is not so much in these latitudes.
Another interesting tree is rainbow eucalyptus, which we wrote about earlier. The bark of this amazing tree literally attracts the eye - it seems as if some kind of artist "worked" here. By themselves, eucalyptus trees, even without "rainbow" bark, are amazing trees. Their uniqueness lies in the fact that the tallest trees ever found were eucalyptus trees. For example, one report from 1872 mentions a fallen eucalyptus that was over 150 meters high!
Another amazing tree that does not have growth rings is a dragon tree or just a dragon tree. Due to the red juice that immediately protrudes from the cut of the bark, it is also sometimes called the dragon's blood tree.
Cotton trees (Ceiba), which grow on the ruins of an ancient Cambodian temple complex, deserve special attention - their roots have long formed a single whole with the ancient stone buildings of the majestic temple
Ceibs are interesting in and of themselves, not only in the context of a picturesque "symbiosis" with the ruins of an ancient temple. Their unusualness lies in the fact that, being essentially representatives of the family of palm trees, they grow mainly in the arid regions of the planet, and therefore their entire trunk and branches are covered with a dense layer of thorns, allowing them to retain the moisture necessary for life.
Sometimes there are such unusual trees that they are given their own names. This happens for a number of reasons - because of the enormous age, unusual appearance or colossal. One of these unusual trees is the Methuselah intermountain pine, discovered in 1953 in the Inyo National Forest in eastern California. The uniqueness of this pine tree lies in the fact that it is one of the oldest and still living trees in the world - according to experts, this year Methuselah turned 4842 years old. In order to prevent acts of vandalism and protect the pine, its exact location is not disclosed.
Other ancient tree, which has its own name, is located in another North American state - South Carolina. We are talking about the 1500-year-old Angel Oak, growing in the wilderness of John's Island. The height of the oak is 20 meters, the diameter is 2.7 meters, and the most spreading branch reaches 27 meters in length. This oak received such an unusual name from the last names of the last owners of these lands - the Angel family.
Also noteworthy is the thickest tree in the world - the Tule Tree, growing next to one of the churches in the Mexican city of Santa Maria del Tule.
The tree belongs to the taxodium family, found only in Mexico, the girth of its trunk is 11.62 meters, the circumference of the trunk is 36.2 meters, and the Tule Tree reaches a height of 35.4 meters, although it used to be a little higher. According to different versions, it is from one and a half to six thousand years old.
The most ancient olive Tree grows on the island of Crete - the tree Elijah Buibon. Despite the fact that it is already about 4 thousand years old, it, surprisingly, still continues to bear fruit.
And last but not least, I would like to dwell on, perhaps, the most unique of the trees known today - a relatively young, in comparison with the above centenarians, "only" a 400-year-old Tree of Life that grew in the middle of the desert in Bahrain, not far from the city of Jebel Dukhan . Seems amazing. that such a huge tree survived and grew in conditions of extremely scarce water supplies, and it still remains a mystery how miraculously he managed to do this ...
Trees of unusual shape from all over the world.
There are many talented people in the world whose work is admired, but still the best artist in the world is undoubtedly nature. She sometimes gives birth to such masterpieces, looking at which you freeze in admiration. In this review, there are photographs of trees, the reality of which is hard to believe.
1 Rainbow Eucalyptus 
The smooth eucalyptus bark consists of many thin layers that have different colors and change throughout the life of an amazing tree.
2. Serrated cherry 
The shiny red-brown surface of the trunk looks especially impressive in winter.
3. Cotton tree 
The trunk and branches of the tree are covered with very large prickly thorns.
4. Jaboticacba 
An evergreen tree with cauliflory - the formation of fruits directly on the trunk and main branches.
5. Adenium - the ominous Desert Rose 
All parts of the plant are poisonous, so much so that in old times they were impregnated with arrowheads.
6. Ceiba 
It is one of the largest and tallest trees in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere.
7. Dragon Tree (Dracaena draconica) 
Dracaena means "female dragon" in Greek.
8. Quiver tree (Aloe dichotomous) 
In the past, the Bushmen and Hottentots used hollowed-out tree branches as arrow quivers.
9. Baobab (Adansonia digitata) 
The amazing tree is not only the thickest in the world, but also has no growth rings.
10. Chilean Pine (Chilean Araucaria) 
The tree has such hard and thorny leaves that birds do not sit on its branches.
11. Twisted Trees 
Trees that stand up for their right to life.
12. Joshua tree (Yucca shortleaf) 
The name of the tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century.
13. Xanthorrhoea (Tree Grass) 
These slow growing trees are resistant to fire and live up to 600 years.
14. Bleeding tree (African teak) 
The tree got its name because of the red-scarlet resin that begins to ooze at the slightest incision.
15. Manchineel tree 
Included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most dangerous tree in the world - all parts of the plant are poisonous and deadly.
16. Spatodea bell-shaped (African tulip tree) 
One of the most beautifully flowering trees in the world is on the list of dangerous invasive species, the spread of which threatens biodiversity.
17. Kindioi Wax Palm 
The tallest palm in the world is the national tree of Colombia.
18. Sequoia Evergreen 
Giant tree Hyperion with a height of 115.61 m is the most tall tree on the planet.
19. Bengal ficus 
The Great Banyan is a tree with the largest crown area in the world located in the Indian Botanical Gardens in Howrah.
20. Walking palm tree (Socratea bareroot) 
These unusual palm trees slowly move along the ground, breaking up to 20 meters per year.
21. Candle tree (Parmentiera edible) 
In the fruits of this tree there is a huge amount vegetable oils due to which they are used as candles.
22. Virginian snowflower 
An unusually beautiful tree comes from the USA.