Trees are truly remarkable! They provide shelter, food, and shade for the animals of the Earth – including humans, they clean the air of pollution, filter water, and one tree can provide up to 260 pounds of oxygen per day. But, trees aren’t solely utilitarian. Research has shown that trees increase property value, increase customer traffic to businesses, beautify urban neighborhoods while reducing violence and even help patients in hospitals heal faster.
Trees are also remarkable in that they can live thousands of years. The Methuselah Tree in California’s White Mountains is thought to be the oldest tree in the world with estimated age of over 5,000 years old! Amazing, isn’t it? Well below are 6 more amazing, historic trees around the world that you should know about.
1. Sisters Olive Trees of Noah
The Sisters Olive Trees of Noah is a grove of 16 olive trees near Bcheale, Lebanon. The trees are believed to be around 5,000 years old. Local legend has it that one of the trees in this grove supplied the olive branch that the dove brought to Noah to signal the end of the flood. The trees still produce olives.
2. The Cedars of God
These trees, also found near Bcheale, Lebanon, are what is left of what used to be a vast forest of Lebanon Cedars. People of ancient times used Lebanon Cedars for building homes and furniture. Egyptians used their wood exclusively for shipbuilding and the Ottoman Empire used the trees for building railways. UNESCO added The Cedars of God to their list of World Heritage Sites in 1998.
3. The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life near Bahrain in the Arabian Desert got its name due to the fact that it is the only living tree for miles around and survives in one of the most harsh areas in the world! Scientists believe that the tree gets the water it needs to survive from an underground stream. Local legend states that the tree stands on what used to be the site of The Garden of Eden, so it survives in a more mystical way. The tree is an estimated 400 years old.
4. Hibaku jumoku
After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, scientist Dr. Harold Jacobsen, from the Manhattan Project, predicted that nothing would grow on the site for at least 75 years. But, just one year after the bomb was dropped, saplings began to grow from the debris. There were also some trees that miraculously survived and are still carefully tended today to preserve them. There are believed to be 170 Hibaku jumoku, or survivor trees, still standing in Hiroshima.
5. Jaya Sri Maha Bhodi
The Jaya Sri Maha Bhodi is a Sacred Fig tree growing in the Mahamewna Gardens in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. It is said to be the oldest living cultivated tree in the world. The tree was planted in 288 BC, which would make it around 2300 years old. It is sacred to Buddhists as it is believed to be cultivated from a branch of the Sri Maha Bodhi at Buddha Gaya in India under which Lord Buddha attained Enlightenment.
6. The Major Oak
This 800 – 1,000 year old, huge, English Oak tree near the village of Edwinstowe in the middle of the Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England, is said to be the tree that Robin Hood and his Merry Men slept. It stands 93 feet tall and has a trunk circumference of 33 feet. Not only is it incredibly large, it’s also very oddly shaped. Nobody is sure why, but some believe that it may be that the tree is actually several saplings that fused together as they grew. It was voted Britain’s favorite tree in 2002.
