Acer palmatum

 

Acer palmatum is a deciduous shrub or small tree reaching heights of 6 to 10 m (20 to 33 ft), rarely 16 metres (52 ft), often growing as an understory plant in shady woodlands. It may have multiple trunks joining close to the ground. In habit, it is often shaped like a hemisphere (especially when younger) or takes on a dome-like form, especially when mature. The leaves are 4–12 cm long and wide, palmately lobed with five, seven, or nine acutely pointed lobes. The flowers are produced in small cymes, the individual flowers with five red or purple sepals and five whitish petals. The fruit is a pair of winged samaras, each samara 2–3 cm long with a 6–8 mm seed. The seeds of Japanese maple and similar species require stratification in order to germinate.

Wind-Swept Trees In New Zealand

Slope Point is the most southern point of New Zealand’s South Island. The region is consistently lashed with fierce and cold southwesterly winds that blow up from Antarctica. The wind here is so intense and relentless, that the trees are twisted, warped and forever bent along the direction the wind blows. Slope Point is predominantly used for sheep farming, and aside from a few sheep, no humans or other animals live on this part of the island. There are a few derelict shacks built under the protection of the windswept trees, but even those are abandoned.

The spectacularly steep cliffs drops down to the sea below. The views are truly amazing over the rocky coastline and surrounding cliffs. There is a small signpost that shows the distance to the Equator and the South Pole, and a small solar-powered lighthouse stands on the farmland.

Jomon Sugi

Jōmon Sugi

Jōmon Sugi (縄文杉) is a large cryptomeria tree (yakusugi) located on Yakushima, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Japan. It is the oldest and largest among the old-growth cryptomeria trees on the island, and is estimated to be between 2,170 and 7,200 years old. Other estimates of the tree's age include "at least 5,000 years", "more than 6,000 years", and "up to 7,000 years old".The tree's name is a reference to the Jōmon period of Japanese prehistory.

Jōmon Sugi is accessible via the Kusugawa Hiking Path (east of Miyanoura) and the Arakawa Trail (starting at the Arakawa Dam), but requires a "four-to-five hour mountain hike" from the nearest road to reach. After the designation of Yakushima as a World Heritage Site in 1993, local officials restricted access to the tree to an observation deck built at a distance of 15 m (49 ft) from the tree.Jōmon Sugi is located on the north face of Miyanoura-dake, the highest peak on Yakushima, at an elevation of 1,300 m(4,300 ft). Discovery of the tree in 1968 "sparked moves to protect the forests" of Yakushima and gave rise to the island's tourist industry, which composes more than half of its economy.

Avenue of the Baobabs

The Avenue or Alley of the Baobabs is a prominent group of baobab trees lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region in western Madagascar. Its striking landscape draws travelers from around the world, making it one of the most visited locations in the region. It has been a center of local conservation efforts, and was granted temporary protected status in July 2007 by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests, the first step toward making it Madagascar's first natural monument.

Along the Avenue in some 260 m long segment are remaining some 20 - 25 trees about 30 meters in height, of the speciesAdansonia grandidieri, endemic to Madagascar. Some 20 - 25 more trees of this species grow in nearby rice paddies and meadows.

Baobab trees, up to 800 years old, known locally as renala (Malagasy for "mother of the forest"), are a legacy of the dense tropical forests that once thrived on Madagascar. The trees did not originally tower in isolation over the sere landscape of scrub but stood in dense forest. Over the years, as the country's population grew, the forests were cleared for agriculture, leaving only the baobab trees, which the locals preserved as much in respect as for their value as a food source and building material.

Cedars of God

The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ‎ Horsh Arz el-Rab "Cedars of the Lord") is one of the last vestiges of the extensive forests of the Cedars of Lebanon (Cedrus libani ) that thrived across Mount Lebanon in ancient times. Their timber was exploited by the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians. The wood was prized by Egyptians for shipbuilding; the Ottoman Empire also used the cedars in railway construction.

History

The mountains of Lebanon were once shaded by thick cedar forests and the tree is the symbol of the country. After centuries of persistent deforestation, the extent of these forests has been markedly reduced.

Tree of life

The concept of a tree of life has been used in biology, religion, philosophy, and mythology. A tree of life is a common motif in various world theologies, mythologies, and philosophies. It alludes to the interconnection of all life on our planet and serves as a metaphor for common descent in the evolutionary sense. The term tree of life may also be used as a synonym for sacred tree.

The tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree.

Lone Cypress

Standing on a granite hillside off California's scenic 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach, the Lone Cypress is a western icon, and has been called one of the most photographed trees in North America. The tree is located between Cypress Point Golf Course and the Pebble Beach Golf Links, two of world's most well known golf courses. Possibly as old as 250 years, the cypress has been scarred by fire and held in place with cables for 65 years.

The Monterey Cypress grows naturally only in Pebble Beach and Point Lobos.

A drawing of the tree was registered as Pebble Beach Company's trademark in 1919. The company, said the trademark protected not only the logo but also the tree itself.

Major Oak

The Major Oak is a large English Oak (Quercus robur) near the village of Edwinstowe in the midst of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire,England. According to local folklore, it was Robin Hood's shelter where he and his merry men slept. It weighs an estimated 23 tons, has a girth of 33 feet (10 metres), and is about 800–1000 years old. In a 2002 survey, it was voted “Britain’s favourite tree”. During 2014 it was voted 'England's Tree of the Year' by a public poll by the Woodland Trust, receiving 18% of the votes.

It receives its present name from Major Hayman Rooke's description of it during 1790.

There are several theories concerning why it became so huge and oddly shaped:

• The Major Oak may be several trees that fused together as saplings.
• The tree was possibly pollarded, a system of tree management that enabled foresters to grow more than one crop of timber from a single tree causing the trunk to grow large and thick. However, there is only limited evidence for this theory as none of the other trees in the surrounding area were pollarded.

Arbol del Tule

Árbol del Tule

El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately 9 km (6 mi) east of the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. It is aMontezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has stoutesttrunk of any tree in the world. In 2001 it was placed on a UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage Sites.

Dimensions and age

In 2005, its trunk had a circumference of 42.0 m (137.8 ft), equating to a diameter of 14.05 m (46.1 ft), a slight increase from a measurement of 11.42 m (37.5 ft) m in 1982.However, the trunk is heavily buttressed, giving a higher diameter reading than the true cross-sectional of the trunk represents; when this is taken into account, the diameter of the 'smoothed out' trunk is 9.38 m (30.8 ft). This is still slightly larger than the next most stout tree known, a Giant Sequoia with a 8.98 m (29.5 ft) diameter.

The height is difficult to measure due to the very broad crown; the 2005 measurement, made by laser, is 35.4 m (116 ft), shorter than previous measurements of 41–43 m (135–141 ft). According to the signboard by the tree (see gallery, below), it has a total volume of 816.829 m³ and a weight of 636.107 t (701.188 short tons); these figures are however not independently verified, and given the same signboard's claim of a girth of 58 m (190 ft), must be treated with suspicion.