List of trees

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a partial list of trees of significance in history, religion, size or age. The list includes actual trees located throughout the world, as well as trees from myths and trees from fiction.

[edit] Real forests and individual trees

[edit] Africa

[edit] Living

• The Cotton Tree, historic symbol of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
• The Wonderboom, a sprawling fig tree in Pretoria, South Africa.
• The Baobab, occasionally known colloquially as "upside-down tree" (from the Arabic legend which claims that the devil pulled out the tree and planted it upside down). This is likely derived from older African lore. The story goes that after creation, each of the animals was given a tree to plant and the hyena planted the baobab upside-down. It is also the national symbol of Madagascar.
• Drago Milenario, a Dracaena draco located in Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, which has been a local tourist attraction for more than a hundred years (mentioned by Alexander von Humboldt, for instance).

[edit] Historical

• Arbre du Ténéré, a very isolated tree in the Sahara region, destroyed in 1973.

[edit] Asia

[edit] Living

• The Cedars of God, a small forest of about 400 Lebanon Cedar trees at about 2,300 meters above sea level in the mountains of northern Lebanon. The Cedars of Lebanon are mentioned in the Bible over 70 times and used as symbols of the Messiah, and they were prized by historical figures such as Herod, Alexander, and Caesar. They also have a mention in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
• The Great Banyan in the botanical garden near Kolkata, a clonal colony of Indian Banyan with a crown circumference of over 330 meters.
• The Sri Maha Bodhi tree, a Sacred Fig propagated from the Bodhi tree, which was planted in 288 BC at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
• The 450 year-old giant banyan tree at Adyar in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India, in the grounds of the Theosophical Society headquarters under which people listened to discourses by luminaries such as J. Krishnamurti, Annie Besant and Maria Montessori.
• Jōmon Sugi, a very large, old Sugi on Yakushima island, Japan.
• The Strangler Fig trees at Ta Prohm, Angkor, Cambodia.
• The 2,300 year-old cryptomeria, Great sugi of Kayano, at Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
• The 1,000 year-old Ginkgo tree at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
• The 500 year-old pair of Ginkgo trees near Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.
• The 400 year-old mesquite Tree of Life in Bahrain.
• A Chankiri Tree or Killing Tree was a tree in the Cambodian Killing Fields which children and infants were slung against to kill them.

[edit] Historical

• The Bodhi tree, a Sacred Fig tree under which Buddha obtained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, India. The current tree at the site is a replacement.
• Guilty Chinese Scholartree, located in Jingshan park, on which Emperor Chongzhen hanged himself shortly after escaping the Forbidden City in Beijing, China (the original tree died and was replaced by a replica).
• Changi Tree, a historical visual landmark located in Singapore. Thought to be a specimen of Sindora wallichii, with an estimated height of 75 metres, it was felled with explosive charges during the Second World War to prevent its use as a ranging aide by the approaching Japanese artillery.
• The Lone Pine (tree), a soltary tree on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, which marked the site of the Battle of Lone Pine in 1915.
• The Kannimara Teak inside Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala, India is one of the oldest and largest living teak trees. It had a girth of 6.52 metres and a height of 48.25 metres when the measurement was taken in 2003.
• A tree within the Korean DMZ was the focus of the Axe Murder Incident, in which two United States Army officers were killed by North Korean soldiers. The killings led to Operation Paul Bunyan, named for the legendary lumberjack. The tree was eventually cut down under the watch of over 800 soldiers.

[edit] Europe

[edit] Living

• Old Tjikko, a 9,550-year old Norway spruce in Sweden. The oldest individual clonal tree in the world.
• Fortingall Yew, an ancient yew in the churchyard of the village of Fortingall in Perthshire, Scotland; probably the oldest tree in Europe. Various estimates have put its age at between 2,000 and 5,000 years.
• The forest swastika was a patch of carefully arranged larch trees covering a 60-yard (55 m) square area of pine forest near Zernikow, Germany.
• Caesarsboom (Caesar's Tree) is a taxus baccata tree in the town of Lo, Belgium which is famous for the legend that the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar attached his horse to it when conquering the region.
• Granit oak, an oak in Granit village near Stara Zagora in Bulgaria; one of the oldest trees in Europe, estimated to be about 1,650 years old. Its crown spread covers an area of 1,017 square metres, its girth is 7.45 m, and its height is 23.4 m.
• Bartek, an oak growing in Zagnańsk in Swietokrzyskie Mountains; the most famous tree in Poland, said to be about 1,200 years old, but after research more accurately about 650 years. It stands 30 m tall, measures 9.5 m in girth at breast height and 13.5 m near the ground, and its crown spread is about 40 m.
• Gernikako Arbola, an oak representing the Basque people, at Guernica, Basque Country, Spain.
• The Queen Elizabeth Oak in the grounds of the Royal Palace of Hatfield in Hertfordshire is said to be the location where Elizabeth I of England was told she was queen in 1558.
• Kongeegen (the King Oak), an ancient Pedunculate oak in Jægerspris Nordskov, Sjælland, Denmark; estimated to be over 1,200 years old, the oldest tree in Denmark.
• Stoke Gabriel churchyard yew. An ancient yew in the churchyard of the village of Stoke Gabriel, in Devon, England; said to be the oldest tree in England.
• Major Oak, an ancient Pedunculate oak in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England, the most famous and most visited tree of Great Britain. About 800 years old, with a girth at breast height of 10.5 m.
• Ivenack Oak, a huge and ancient Pedunculate oak in Ivenack, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, thought to be about 800 years old, 35 m tall, 11 m in girth at breast height and 16.5 m near the ground. The largest oak in Germany and (in wood volume) probably in Europe.
• Baikushev's Pine, an ancient Bosnian Pine in the Pirin mountains near Bansko, Bulgaria, estimated to be 1,300 years old. It is one of the oldest trees of Bulgaria and stands 24 m tall with a girth of 6.9 m at breast height.
• Stelmužė Oak, a Pedunculate oak in Stelmužė, Zarasai district, Lithuania; it is thought to be around 1,500 years old, with a girth at breast height of 9.58 m and 13 m near the ground. The oldest tree in Lithuania and the Baltic States.
• Anne Frank Tree, the horse-chestnut tree in the city center of Amsterdam that was featured in Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl.
• The Larch tree featured in "How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away," the third episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

[edit] Historical

• Merlin's Oak at Carmarthen, Wales.
• Glastonbury Thorn, a hawthorn reputed to have been planted by Joseph of Arimathea.
• Thor's Oak, a tree sacred to the Germanic tribe of the Chatti, ancestors of the Hessians.
• The Sacred tree at Uppsala was a sacred tree venerated by Norse pagans that was located at the Temple at Uppsala, Sweden, in the second half of the 11th century.
• Royal Oak, the Pedunculate oak in which King Charles II hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651, located in Boscobel, England (deceased and replaced by a descendant).
• Shakespeare's mulberry tree at New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon, cut down in the mid-18th century and fashioned into mementos.
• Tree of Hippocrates, the Oriental plane under which Hippocrates is supposed to have taught, on the island of Kos, Greece.
• The Red Forest, formerly the Worm Wood Forest, refers to the trees growing in the 10 km² surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and is one of several of the Chernobyl disaster effects on April 26, 1986. The name 'Red Forest' comes from the ginger brown colour of the pine trees after they died following the absorption of high levels of radiation.

[edit] Petrified

• Petrified Forest of Lesvos in Lesvos, Greece

[edit] North America

An arborist resting next to the coastal redwood Iluvatar in the Spring of 2008. This is the 2nd largest coastal redwood known.

[edit] Living

• The Angel Oak, a Southern live oak on Johns Island, South Carolina, near Charleston, South Carolina is estimated at 1,400 years of age. The tree and surrounding park have been owned by the neighboring city of Charleston since 1991.
• The Atlas Grove Iluvatar; 2nd largest known Coastal Redwood in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
• El Árbol del Tule, the stoutest tree in the world, a Moctezuma Cypress in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico.
• El Arbolito (The Little Tree), traditional landmark used to give directions in Managua, Nicaragua.
• Lost Monarch in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is the largest known Coastal Redwood.
• The Sad Night Tree (Árbol de la Noche Triste) (Tacubaya, Mexico City, Mexico) An old tree where Hernan Cortes mourned his defeat when he fought to conquer Tenochtitlan.
• The Balmville Tree, the oldest eastern cottonwood in the Eastern United States, in Balmville, New York. Among its other protections, it is New York's smallest state forest.
• The Big Tree - Goose Island, Texas' largest tree, located in Goose Island State Park, Rockport, Texas.
• Chandelier Tree, a Coast Redwood with a passage for cars cut through.
• The Circus Trees, a group of trees shaped into artistic forms by Axel Erlandson in California
• The Emancipation Oak, Hampton, Virginia
• The General Grant tree, the "Nation's Christmas Tree" of the United States, a Giant Sequoia in Kings Canyon National Park, California.
• The General Sherman tree, the world's tallest Giant Sequoia, located in Sequoia National Park, California.
• The Hangman's Elm, an English Elm and the oldest known tree in Manhattan.
• The Hare Krishna Tree, an American Elm in Manhattan's East Village notable as the founding site of the Hare Krishna religion in the U.S.
• Hyperion, a Coast Redwood in California, at 115.5 m tall the tallest tree in the world, found in 2006.
  • Stratosphere Giant, also a Coast Redwood, 112.8 m tall, the tallest tree in the world until displaced by Hyperion.
• Le Chêne à Papineau, a 20 m tall Northern Red Oak in Montebello, Quebec. At 300 years old, it is one of the oldest known trees in Quebec.
• The Comfort Maple tree, a 24.5 metres (80 ft) tall, approx. 500 year old Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) located in Pelham, Ontario.
• The Linden Oak, North Bethesda, Maryland.
• The Lone Cypress, a dramatically situated Monterey Cypress on the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, California.
• Luna, The tree is between 600 and 1000 years old and lives in a grove of old growth forest in Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, California. The tree was the home of tree sitter Julia Butterfly Hill who lived in the tree for 738 days.
• Methuselah, a candidate for the oldest known living organism (approximately 4,700 years), a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in California.
• The National Christmas Tree, a blue spruce planted in President's Park in Washington, D.C.. It was 9 meters (30 ft) tall when it was transplanted from York, Pennsylvania, in 1978.
• El Palo Alto, a Coast Redwood in Palo Alto, California.
• Pando (Quaking Aspen), an aspen colony, is the oldest known clonal colony at possibly 80,000 years, and the heaviest at 6,000 tonnes.
• The Queens Giant, a Tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) in northeast Queens, New York, that is 40 meters (134 ft) tall and 350-450 years old. It is the oldest living organism in the New York metropolitan area.
• Santa Barbara's Moreton Bay Fig Tree
• The Senator is the largest Baldcypress tree in the United States. It is 35 meters (115 ft) tall with a trunk diameter of 344 cm and an estimated stem volume of 119.4 m3. It is located in Big Tree Park, Longwood, Florida and is estimated to be 3,500 years old.
• The Seven Sisters Oak, a Southern live oak in Lewisberg, Louisiana, is believed to be nearly 1,500 years old. The tree has a girth of over 38 feet (12 m) and is the president of the Live Oak Society.
• The Survivor Tree is an American Elm that is incorporated into the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
• Treaty Oak, in Austin, Texas.
• The Tree That Owns Itself, a white oak tree that owns itself and all land within 2.5 m (8 ft) of it in Athens, Georgia.
• The Washington Oak, a white oak in Princeton Township, New Jersey, USA that overlooks the Princeton Battlefield State Park; located where British and American forces first saw each other, igniting the Battle of Princeton in 1777.
• The Washington tree, a Giant Sequoia in California.
• The Witch Tree, also called Manido Giizhigance, or Little Cedar Spirit Tree by the Ojibwe Indian tribe, is a cedar near Grand Portage, Minnesota growing on the rocky shoreline of Lake Superior. It is at least 300 years old, possibly twice that, revered by the local Ojibwe Indian tribe, and mentioned by French explorers in 1731.

[edit] Historical

• Black Hawk Tree, a cottonwood in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Debunked local lore held that Sauk Chief Black Hawk once hid amongst its branches to escape his pursuers. The tree was destroyed by a storm during the 1920s.
• The Burmis tree, a limber pine near Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. Declared dead in 1979 but still standing on the north side of the Crowsnest Highway.
• The Charter Oak, in which the Connecticut charter was hidden from English governor-general Sir Edmund Andros.
• The Geneseo Big Tree at Geneseo, New York, a giant tree on the Genesee River, reported by some as an elm, by others as an oak. It was the site of the 1797 Treaty of Big Tree between Robert Morris and the Seneca tribe to sell most of western New York, also known as The Holland Purchase. It was washed away in a flood in the mid 19th century.
• The Hooker Oak at Chico, California.
• Kiidk'yaas, a rare golden Sitka Spruce sacred to the Haida, on Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia, Canada. The tree was felled in 1997.
• The Liberty Tree at Boston, Massachusetts.
• The Mercer Oak, the white oak on which a wounded General Hugh Mercer rested during the American Revolutionary War's Battle of Princeton. Despite its fall in early 2000, it continues to be Princeton Township, New Jersey's emblem.
• The Mingo Oak, formerly the oldest and largest white oak in the United States until its fall on September 10, 1938. It was located in Mingo County, West Virginia.
• The Prometheus, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine, was the oldest living non-clonal organism. The age was estimated at 5,000 years. The tree was cut down on August 6, 1964, by a graduate student and U.S. Forest Service personnel for research purposes, though at the time they did not know of its world-record age.
• The Treaty of Greenville Tree in Greenville, Ohio.
• The Mother of the Forest a 321-foot (98 m) giant sequoia
• The Washington Oak, on Hampton Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. When George Washington visited Charleston in 1791, Eliza Lucas Pinckney complained about a live oak that blocked the view. Washington remarked that he liked the tree, so it was saved and has since been known as the Washington Oak.
• Wawona Tree, a giant sequoia with a tunnel cut through it. Fell in 1969.
• Wethersfield Elm
• The Wye Oak was the honorary state tree of Maryland, and the largest white oak tree in the United States.

[edit] Petrified

• Ginkgo Petrified Forest in Washington
• The Petrified Forest in Sonoma County, California, is on the List of California Historical Landmarks.
• Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona
• The Mother of the Forest a 321-foot (98 m) giant sequoia

[edit] Other

The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

• Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, a Christmas tree on display every December in Rockefeller Center, New York City.
• The Tree of Life, a fourteen-story artificial tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.

[edit] Oceania

[edit] Living

• Wollemi Pine, Wollemi National Park, Blue Mountains, New South Wales.
• Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, Karri forest fire lookout tree with accessible platform, near Manjimup, Australia.
• Diamond Tree, Karri forest fire lookout tree with accessible wooden platform (52 m high), 10 km from Manjimup, Australia.
• Dig Tree, Cooper Creek, Queensland, used as a marker by members of the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.
• Gloucester Tree, Western Australia's most famous Karri tree, with accessible aluminium platform, in Gloucester National Park (61 m high).
• Old Jarrah Tree, Perth, Western Australia.
• Curtain Fig Tree massive Ficus virens (Strangler Fig) tree near Cairns, Australia. One of the largest trees in North Queensland. The vine dangles 15 metres to the ground to create a curtain-like effect.
• Cathedral Fig Tree another massive Ficus virens in the Danbulla Forest.
• Tane Mahuta ('Lord of the Forest'), a giant Kauri in Northland Region, New Zealand.
• Te Matua Ngahere ('Father of the Forest'), another giant Kauri in Northland Region, New Zealand.
• Banyan Tree Park, a 132 year-old tree in Lāhainā, Hawai'i. The tree was imported from India and was 2.5 m (8 ft) tall when it was planted on April 24, 1873 by Sheriff William O. Smith to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Christian missionary work. The tree is now 18 m (60 ft) high with 12 major trunks.
• The Boab Prison Tree, a tree located south of Derby, Western Australia, which was used as a prison for Indigenous Australian prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing.

[edit] Historical

• The Tree of Knowledge near Barcaldine, Queensland under which the Australian Labor Party was traditionally founded. In an act of vandalism, the tree was poisoned and was eventually declared dead in October 2006.
• The pine of One Tree Hill, a radiata pine which stood alone until 2000 atop One Tree Hill (Maunga-Kiekie), an extinct volcanic cone in Auckland city, New Zealand.
• Old Gum Tree, Glenelg, South Australia.

[edit] Mythological and religious

Further information: World tree and Axis mundi

• World Tree
  • Égig érő fa, the "Tree Reaching into the Sky" of Hungarian folk art and a folk tale type
  • Irminsul
  • Jievaras, the World tree in Lithuanian mythology.
  • Yggdrasil, the World Tree in the Old Norse religion.
• Cutting of the elm, a legendary event concerning a tree at Gisors.
• Cypress of Kashmar, planted by Zoroaster and felled by Caliph Al Mutawakkil.
• Man-eating tree
• Thor's Oak, a sacred tree to the ancient Germanic tribe of the Chatti.
• Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, from Christianity and Judaism.
• Tree of Life, from Christianity and Judaism.

[edit] Fictional

• Avendesora and Avendoraldera from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time.
• The Giving Tree, in the book of that title by Shel Silverstein.
• Shenmue, the Cherry blossom tree from the video game Shenmue. The game itself is named after this tree.
• Great Deku Tree from the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
• The Iifa Tree from the video game Final Fantasy IX.
• The Menoa Tree from the Inheritance Cycle.
• The One Tree from Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
• Telperion and Laurelin, the Two Trees of Valinor, from The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• White Tree of Gondor from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• The Truff-u-la Tree from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
• The Mana Tree from the Seiken Densetsu series.
• The Kite-Eating Tree from Peanuts.
• The Magic Faraway Tree from the books by Enid Blyton.
• The Solar Tree from the Boktai series of video games.
• The Whomping Willow from Harry Potter
• Jelaza Kazone from the Liaden books.
• The Sojourner Tree from Alice Walker's novel Meridian.
• The Tree of Life Disney's Animal Kingdom

[edit] See also

• List of great British trees
• List of long-living organisms
• List of famous rocks
• List of famous diamonds
• Oldest tree
• Notable elm trees
• Gerichtslinde
• Bonsai

[edit] External links

• Photos of the Dragon Tree in Tenerife
• Map of this list (in progress)
• World’s first tree reconstructed 385 million-year-old tree