There are more than 3 trillion trees and 60,000 tree species found here on Earth. Maybe of them you might consider to be common and unremarkable, but a few stand out from the rest for their, unique appearance. In a way, they look as though they’re from another planet! Here are 10 weird trees that look completely out of this world.
Rainbow Eucalyptus
The rainbow eucalyptus tree is one of our favorites. It grows much like any other eucalyptus would, but its trunk is a dazzling display of colors. Most tree trunks you see are brown, green, or sometimes white. But the rainbow eucalyptus can feature numerous different colors, like red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and violet. Their trunks are incredibly unique, making it unlike any other tree in the world.
Dragon’s Blood Trees
Dragon’s Blood trees are similar to Joshua and Baobab trees, which you’ll see a bit later on this list. They are native to the Socotra archipelago of Yemen, located in the Arabian Sea. It gets its name from the blood-red sap that seeps from its trunk. The tree is an evergreen that sheds its leaves only every three or four years. These trees grow to around 30 feet in height.
Redwood Trees
If you’ve ever seen a full sized Redwood tree in person, you probably walked away from the experience in awe. These trees are truly enormous, growing close to 400 feet in height. The world’s largest tree, Hyperion, is a Redwood that reaches 379 feet into the air. Few species of tree come even close to the gargantuan height of the Redwood.
Baobab
Like many of the trees on this list, the Baobab tree is unlike any other. They can reach heights of up to 100 feet and have large, bulbous trunks with branches and leaves only at the very top of the tree. These trees live an incredibly long time, up to 2,000 years old!
Bristlecone Pine
Bristlecone pines are some of the longest-living trees in the world. It’s not out of the question for a Pinus longaeva to live longer than 5,000 years! These trees tend to be smaller and grow very slowly. Their gnarled appearance makes it unique among trees found on Earth. These trees grow in isolated groves at very high elevations, between 5,600 and 11,000 feet.
Banyan Trees
The Banyan tree is a type of fig tree significant to those practicing the Hindu faith. The trees have enormous, sprawling branches and bare roots. Occasionally, these roots descend from the branches of the tree and into the ground, giving it an other-worldly appearance.
Joshua Trees
Joshua trees grow primarily in the Mojave desert in the southwestern United States. These trees thrive in open grasslands in areas with little precipitation. If you’d never seen one before, you might not even identify it as a tree. Their branches are thick and short and the leaves look more like a yucca’s than a maple or a pine.
Japanese Maple
Unlike other maple trees, the Japanese maple doesn’t grow to be particularly tall. These trees are often short with long, reddish colored leaves and twisting branches. The leaves in particular look like something totally out of this world.
Jabuticaba Tree
Jabuticaba trees are a strange fruiting tree native to Brazil. Many of the fruit trees we know and love grow their fruit from flowers that bloom on their branches, but the Jabuticaba tree is a bit different. Its fruits grow along the trunk, not the branches. These small, black fruits are similar to grapes and can be made into juice and wine.
Dead Vlei Trees
Finishing this list are the Dead Vlei trees found in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The landscape alone looks like one you would find on Mars, but if you trek into the Sossusvlei region of the park, you will find a place called Dead Vlei. Dead Vlei was once a marsh that dried up more than 900 years ago, leaving behind Dead Vlei trees. These trees, which are more than 1,000 years old, form a strange, alien-like forest of twisted, burnt branches. The trees have lasted this long due to the dryness. Without moisture, the trees are unable to decompose.
