GoKawiilOne of my favorite pastimes is exploring old bookstores. A few months ago, I spotted a complete set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, published in 1975, but that particular set was too expensive for me. A couple of weeks ago, however, I found a good deal in an another bookstore and bought it. What an experience it has been so far. There is so much in those heavy volumes that I do not know. Recently, I was reading about cosmology when, in the same volume, an entry on trees piqued my interest. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about some unusual trees and thought I should share them though it’s a bit different from what I usually write about.
Let’s start with mangroves, found in coastal areas and along riverbanks. Mangroves are unusual and a bit counterintuitive: they spread seaward while also helping defend the land behind them. These trees serve as vital defenses against coastal damage.
Their seeds grow into seedlings and when these seedlings fall, they either become fixed in the mud or float away to another site.
A banyan can look like a whole forest even though it is one tree. Roots drop from its branches, take hold in the ground, and grow into new supports like trunks.
I was surprised to learn that one such tree, with a circumference of 2,000 feet has been estimated as being capable of sheltering 20,000 people. That is a massive amount of shade. India has several giant banyans. Thimmamma Marrimanu in Andhra Pradesh currently holds the Guinness canopy record at about 5.41 acres (an area equivalent to three soccer fields); The Great Banyan in Kolkata is another famous specimen at about 4 acres. A tree covering this much area went completely against what I would expect from a tree.
Banyan tree covering 4.7 acres, photo : PJeganathan, (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The ombú is tree-like in size, but so swollen and massive in form that it feels almost architectural. The ombú tree attains heights of 60 feet and a spread of 100 feet and it has a wide trunk.
Its trunk and roots are thick enough and in some cases enough for a person to sit upon.
The traveller’s tree looks like a palm, but botanically it is not a true palm. The traveller’s tree of Madagascar, fan-shaped, has a trunk up to 30 feet tall. The foliar fan consists of 30 to 45 leaves, each as much as 36 feet in length. Their fans look majestic.
Traveller’s tree of Madagascar, photo : Dicklyon, (CC, BY-SA 4.0)
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