The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom

The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort.

Additional images of The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom:
Close-up view Source:hubpages.com Multiple sources     Closer view Source:panoramio.com     Closest view Source:jamboeveryone.com    

African Baobab tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom

African Baobab tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Additional images of African Baobab tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom:
Closer-up view Source:thewallpapers.org
Elephants cluster near the baobab tree Source:blog.touringplans.com d2eu5panhhlmd4.cloudfront.net
Kilimanjaro Safari Source:blogs.disney.com    

The General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park

Left: The General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park, largest known living single stem tree in the world.
Right: The "Grizzly Giant" is one of the main attractions in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park. It is a landmark ancient Giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree. Note the size of the people at the bottom of the image for scale.

Angel Oak Tree near Charleston, South Carolina

Left: Angel Oak Tree near Charleston, South Carolina
Right: Angel Oak Tree near Charleston, South Carolina

Left: The Angel Oak Tree in South Carolina
Right: The Angel Oak on Johns Island, South Carolina

Angel Oak is a live oak tree aged approximately 1,500 years. Some locals simply call it The Tree. It stands in a wooded area along Bohicket Road of John's Island outside Charleston, South Carolina.

Teapot Baobab tree

Left: Teapot Baobab tree in spiny forest at Rena la Botanical park, Madagascar
Right: The 'Teapot'. Ancient Baobab in spiny forest at Rena la Botanical park.
Teapot Baobab - Baobab trees are a species that is native to Madagascar, as well as Australia and Africa. The trees of Madagascar as called "Teapot Baobabs," as they grown from ponds in the ground. Baobab trees grow wide and tall and have one of the longest survival rates of any tree species. On average, the trees grow to be up to 100 feet tall. However, it is the width of the Baobab trunks that is so amazing. Most trunks reach diameters of about 30 feet. (Reference: www.pinterest.com )

Additional images of Teapot Baobab tree and Rena la Botanical park:
Sunrise at Rena La botanical park. Source:commons.wikimedia.org

Aloe dichotoma (quiver tree), subsp. dichotoma

1. Quiver tree forest at the national monument Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop in southern Namibia..
2. Quiver Tree Forest near Keetmanshoop, Namibia, in the evening.
3. Quiver tree (Aloe dichotoma) in flower in the Augrabies National Park, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.
4. Quiver tree (Aloe dichotoma) flowers in the Augrabies National Park, Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

Aloe dichotoma (the quiver tree or kokerboom) is a tall, branching species of aloe, indigenous to Southern Africa, specifically in the Northern Cape region of South Africa, and parts of Southern Namibia.
Known as Choje to the indigenous San people, the quiver tree gets its English common name from the San people practice of hollowing out the tubular branches of Aloe dichotoma to form quivers for their arrows. The species name "dichotoma" refers to how the stems repeatedly branch into two ("dichotomous" branching) as the plant grows. (Wikipedia)
There are three subspecies, subsp. dichotoma, subsp. pillansii and subsp. ramosissima.
Aloe dichotoma is named for its distinctive forked branching pattern (from the Greek dikhotomia, meaning 'a cutting in two').
The English common name for Aloe dichotoma – the quiver tree – refers to the San people’s use of the hollowed branches to make quivers to hold their hunting arrows.

Aloe pillansii (Giant quiver tree)

5. Aloe pillansii Worcester Botanical Gardens Cape.
6. Aloe pillansii L.Guthrie Naukluft Mountain Trail, Namibia
7. Aloe pillansii L.Guthrie Naukluft Mountain Trail, Namibia
8. Aloe Pillansii (Bastard Quiver Tree) flowering
9. A QUIVER TREE IN SPITZKOPPE, NAMIBIA.
Aloe pillansii, the giant quiver tree or bastard quiver tree, is a large, branching species of Aloe indigenous to southern Africa. It is regarded as critically endangered. It is a synonym of Aloe dichotoma subsp. pillansii (L.Guthrie).

Aloe pillansii is taller than A. dichotomaand has fewer branches with broader and paler leaves. The inflorescence that grows below the leaf crowns, almost pointing downward separating it from A. dichotoma which has upright inflorescences above the top of the leaf.

Bottle tree of Southern Africa (Pachypodium lealii)

The Bottle tree (Pachypodium lealii Welw.) is a species of plant included in the genus Pachypodium. The scientific name derives from the 19th century Portuguese geologist Fernando da Costa Leal, who described the Bottle tree during an exploration in southern Angola.
This species can be either a shrub or a tree up to 6 meters tall and is characterized by the thick bottle-shaped trunk, which is almost branchless until the top. The branches are few and covered by slender thorns up to 30 cm long. Leaves are oblong and are covered with short hairs on both surfaces. The flowers, shown below in detail, are present in the spring, when the tree is leafless. The white flowers, characteristic of the Apocynaceae family, cluster around the tips of the branches.
The Bottle tree is an endemic species of Namibia and southern Angola where it occupies the semi-desert areas and dry bushvelds, usually along rocky hillsides. It is especially common in the Etendeka plateau of NE Namibia, where it can be seen growing in the basalt slopes.
The plant produces a watery latex, rich in toxic alkaloids, used by local populations as arrow poison for hunting. In contact with the eyes this latex can produce blindness. (Wikipedia)
The bottle tree owes its name to the unusual swollen shape of its trunk. Like other pachypodiums, this succulent stem of the plant acts as a water store that enables it to tolerate the hot, dry environments in which it grows. Its sap is highly toxic. (www.kew.org)

From Left to Right:
1. Pachypodium lealii Damaraland, Namibia.
2. Pachypodium lealii near Palmwag in north western Namibia. Size: 1.5 m high.
3. Pachypodium lealii blossoms
4. Bottle-tree (flowers)
5. Bottle-tree (flowers)

Bottle trees in Various Places

From Left to Right:
1. Bottle Tree from Australia
2. Bottle Tree Plantations in Queensland, Australia
3. Brachychiton rupestris Queensland Bottle Tree
4. Pachypodium lealii, in the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, Massachusetts, USA.
5. Pachypodium lealii ssp. saundersii at Osaka Prefectural Flower Garden,Osaka,Japan

Adansonia digitata (baobab) - upside-down tree

Adansonia digitata (baobab) is the most widespread of the Adansonia species, and is native to the African continent. The long-lived pachycauls are typically found in dry, hot savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa, where they dominate the landscape, and reveal the presence of a watercourse from afar. Their growth rate is determined by ground water or rainfall, and their maximum age, which is subject to much conjecture, seems to be in the order of 1,500 years.[5] They have traditionally been valued as sources of food, water, health remedies or places of shelter and are steeped in legend and superstition. Explorers of old were inclined to carve their names on baobabs, and many are defaced by modern graffiti. Common names for the baobab include dead-rat tree (from the appearance of the fruit), monkey-bread tree (the soft, dry fruit is edible), upside-down tree (the sparse branches resemble roots), cream of tartar tree (cream of tartar) and गोरख चिंच in marathi (meaning monkey's tamarind). (Wikipedia)

Adansonia digitata - Baobab Tree, Dead-rat tree, Monkey-bread tree, or Upside-down tree.

From Left to Right:
1. Baobab (Adansonia digitata) and elephant, Tanzania.
2. Baobab, Adansonia digitata, In full leaf, in Bagamoyo Tanzania.
3. Adansonia digitata, Without leaves in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania
4, African boab, as it looks for most of the year.
5. Adansonia digitata in Epupa gorge, Namibia-Angola border

Left: Adansonia digitata, Each leaf comprises five leaflets
Middle: Adansonia digitata, Open flower
Right: Fruit of the Baobab tree The fruit can be up to 25 centimetres (10 in) long and is used to make a drink.

Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana)

   

Left: Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana)
Right: Monkey Puzzle tree - Close-up view

 

Left: Araucaria araucana in South America
Right: Mixed forest of Araucaria and coigüe in Nahuelbuta National Park, Chile.

Left: Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana)
Middle: Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana)
Midle Right: Araucaria araucana Female cones
Right: Araucaria araucana Male cones

Cannonball trees (Couroupita guianensis)

 

Cannonball tree       Cannonball tree
The tree’s bizarre appearance is brought about because the large globular fruits are borne in clusters directly on the trunk of the tree.

 

Cannonball tree     Cannonball tree

 

 

 

1. Cannonball tree flower buds.
2. Cannonball tree Flowers.
3. Cannonball tree Fruits.
4. Shiva Linga Flower: The flower was named as Naga Lingam.The trees are grown extensively in Shiva temples in India. In Hindi it is called Shiv Kamal and also known as "Kailaspati". It is called the Nagalingam tree in Tamil. The flowers are called Shivalinga flowers in Hindi; Nagalinga Pushpa in Kannada; Nagamalli flowers or Mallikarjuna flowers in Telugu. Hindus revere it as a sacred tree because the petals of the flower resemble the hood of the Naga, a sacred snake, protecting a Shiva Lingam, the stigma. (krishnalacreativite.blogspot.com)

Tree of Half Life

Tree Shaping Art by Storm Thorgerson, used as a Pink Floyd t-shirt design and as a frontpiece in a book.

Image sources: www.flickr.com   Multiple sources  

The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

Left: The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove

Osun-Osogbo or Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is a sacred forest along the banks of the Osun river just outside the city of Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria.
The Osun-Osogbo Grove is among the last of the sacred forests which usually adjoined the edges of most Yoruba cities before extensive urbanization. In recognition of its global significance and its cultural value, the Sacred Grove was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.