Trees can enter history books around the world for a number of reasons. Sometimes they live longer, grow taller, or extend over a wider region than their peers. Other times, they are simply in the right place at the right time to make an impact. The Tree of Hippocrates is one such example.
The araucaria araucana is certainly a peculiar tree. Chile’s national tree is originally from high in the mountains of Patagonia, but thanks to a strange twist of fate, it’s now common in Victorian gardens throughout the UK.
The Yew of Aginalde is located high in the mountains of the Gorbeia Natural Park in Spain’s Basque Country. Although they grow naturally in the area, there aren’t many yew trees left.
As fall begins in Malaga, Spain, the smell of roasted sweet chestnuts fills the pedestrian streets of the city center. In the mountains above the small town of Istan, the ‘Holy Chestnut’ has grown for a thousand years.
Apple trees have long been a part of human history, as one of the first cultivated trees, but one tree inspired one of the biggest scientific discoveries in centuries. The so called ‘gravity tree’ is located on the grounds of Woolsthorpe Manor, the birthplace of Sir Isaac Newton.
High in the mountains of Sierra de las Nieves natural park in the South of Spain, one Spanish fir tree (abies pinsapo) towers above its kin.
At the east end of Madrid’s iconic Puerta del Sol there is a tribute to another famous symbol of the city – the Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree.
Although not native to the island, oak trees have become the signature tree of Galveston. The trees have been through a lot of changes in their lifetimes, and are now halfway across the world being transformed into a living history museum.
In one of thousands of olive groves that cover the lands of Andalusia, the Millennial Olive of Arroyo Carnicero stands out as one of the oldest.
