1. Chapel Oak
Those guys who lived in the 1600s were not without a sense of creativity. Behold the 800-year-old Le Chene Chapel or the Chapel Oak if you like. Located in Allouivlle-Bellefosse, France, this tree was carved out in the 1600s to house two chapels with its enormous trunk. This was after lighting struck and burned the core of the tree. The tree survived and remained standing, allowing the local priests to build their own chapel. The tree is beginning to act its age and requires supporting struts to hold it up. This has not stopped it from being used for mass twice in a year. In case you were wondering, there is a stair case which winds around the trunk to reach the upper part of the chapels. Cool huh?
2. Wawona ‘Drive-Through’ Tree
This tree was huge and was the most famous among all trees in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National park, California. It stood at an incredible height of 227 feet and guess what, you could drive through it! It was initially 90 feet in circumference and when it sustained a fire scare, a hole big enough to drive through had to be cut at its base, hence its name ‘drive-through’. Unfortunately, it fell in 1969 under an estimated two-ton load of snow. It was 2300 years old.
3. Rainbow Eucalyptus
The Rainbow Eucalyptus’s bark is so brightly colored such that you may mistake yourself in an Alice in Wonderland cartoon. Native to the Philippines, the tree sheds the outer layer of its bark often to expose new green bark underneath. As the bark ages, it goes through several color changes from green to blue, to purple, to orange and finally brown before shedding. The bark sheds in irregular patches and three displays a collection of all these colors at once giving a kaleidoscope effect. They can be grown in any place that does not experience frost, but in the Philippines, they are mainly cultivated for use in paper manufacture.
4. The Boab Prison Tree
Found outside the town of Derby in Western Australia, the boab prison tree is named so because its stout trunk of 14 cm has been cut to form a small cell used as a prison. Creative, right? Police walking their prisoners to town would use the tree as a temporary holding cell overnight before carrying on to their final destination. The tree is 1500 years old and visitors are often asked to see it behind a fence to prevent it from getting damaged. I can tell you that not many of them resist the temptation of moving closer to behold the tree. There’s another tree of comparable size in Wyndham which is equally good but less visited due to its isolation.
5. Sculpted Trees
The first time I saw this one I thought it was an electrocuted human being. Turns out there is a name for how it is formed: arbor sculpture. It is the use of living trees to create a desired shape or structure. Alex Erlandson is considered the greatest of all arbor sculptors and his circus trees are still popular attractions. The trick is to direct the growth of the tree while it is still alive. It is even possible to create unique furniture by harvesting the wood once it takes on the desired form. And yes; your credit card must be loaded to buy such furniture.
Those guys who lived in the 1600s were not without a sense of creativity. Behold the 800-year-old Le Chene Chapel or the Chapel Oak if you like. Located in Allouivlle-Bellefosse, France, this tree was carved out in the 1600s to house two chapels with its enormous trunk. This was after lighting struck and burned the core of the tree. The tree survived and remained standing, allowing the local priests to build their own chapel. The tree is beginning to act its age and requires supporting struts to hold it up. This has not stopped it from being used for mass twice in a year. In case you were wondering, there is a stair case which winds around the trunk to reach the upper part of the chapels. Cool huh?
2. Wawona ‘Drive-Through’ Tree
This tree was huge and was the most famous among all trees in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National park, California. It stood at an incredible height of 227 feet and guess what, you could drive through it! It was initially 90 feet in circumference and when it sustained a fire scare, a hole big enough to drive through had to be cut at its base, hence its name ‘drive-through’. Unfortunately, it fell in 1969 under an estimated two-ton load of snow. It was 2300 years old.
3. Rainbow Eucalyptus
The Rainbow Eucalyptus’s bark is so brightly colored such that you may mistake yourself in an Alice in Wonderland cartoon. Native to the Philippines, the tree sheds the outer layer of its bark often to expose new green bark underneath. As the bark ages, it goes through several color changes from green to blue, to purple, to orange and finally brown before shedding. The bark sheds in irregular patches and three displays a collection of all these colors at once giving a kaleidoscope effect. They can be grown in any place that does not experience frost, but in the Philippines, they are mainly cultivated for use in paper manufacture.
4. The Boab Prison Tree
Found outside the town of Derby in Western Australia, the boab prison tree is named so because its stout trunk of 14 cm has been cut to form a small cell used as a prison. Creative, right? Police walking their prisoners to town would use the tree as a temporary holding cell overnight before carrying on to their final destination. The tree is 1500 years old and visitors are often asked to see it behind a fence to prevent it from getting damaged. I can tell you that not many of them resist the temptation of moving closer to behold the tree. There’s another tree of comparable size in Wyndham which is equally good but less visited due to its isolation.
5. Sculpted Trees
The first time I saw this one I thought it was an electrocuted human being. Turns out there is a name for how it is formed: arbor sculpture. It is the use of living trees to create a desired shape or structure. Alex Erlandson is considered the greatest of all arbor sculptors and his circus trees are still popular attractions. The trick is to direct the growth of the tree while it is still alive. It is even possible to create unique furniture by harvesting the wood once it takes on the desired form. And yes; your credit card must be loaded to buy such furniture.
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