What are all the trees called? Name secret. How did the tree names come about? evergreen deciduous plants
Names of trees often have a very interesting history of origin. Often they are formed from the surname or name of a famous person. About trees named after famous people, and we have to talk.
Spelling features
The names of the genera have very different origins - these are borrowings from classical Latin, and Latinized words from other languages (most often from ancient Greek). The scientific name of a plant genus consists of one word, it is uninominal. The Code of Botanical Nomenclature stipulates the requirement that this word be “Latin” in form, that is, written in the letters of the Latin alphabet and subject to the rules of Latin grammar.
Chief of the Cherokee Tribe
Genus Sequoia (sequoia Endl.) is represented by the only tree species of the Taxodiaceae family, growing on the Pacific coast of North America. Sequoias are one of the tallest trees on our planet: individual specimens reach a height of more than 100 m, while their age can be 3,500 years.
The name of the genus was given in honor of Sequoyah - the Indian leader of the Cherokee tribe. He was born in the early 1760s to an Indian woman and a white father. Sequoyah developed a writing system for the Cherokee language in the form of a syllabary, in which there were 86 characters borrowed from the Latin, and possibly partly from the Cyrillic alphabet.
He first taught his own daughter to read and write and managed to prove to his people the usefulness of this invention. The last years of his life, Sequoyah devoted to the development of a common script for the North American Indians.
Two years after his death, in 1847, the Austrian botanist and taxonomist Stefan Endlicher named the genus Sequoia in his honor.
emperor tree
Currently, the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature contains the provision that new plant taxa cannot be named after individuals, not directly related to botany, however, until about the end of the 19th century, such names were found.
In the year of the coronation of Napoleon - Emperor of France (1804), a genus of African trees was named in his honor. On the fieldabouton the (Napoleonaea P. beauv), belonging to the lecythis family. The name of the genus was given by the French botanist Palisot de Beauvois - a true Bonapartist. Being on an expedition in Africa, he sent to Paris, and later described the plants of the genus Napoleon. An interesting feature: their flowers are devoid of petals, but at the same time they have three circles of sterile stamens, forming a structure resembling a corolla.
In honor of Pavlovna
Often the name of the genus is a word formed from the surname or name, and very rarely from the patronymic. The German naturalist Franz von Siebold and the German botanist Gerhard Zuccarini published a number of joint works while studying the flora of Japan. It was they who in 1835 described woody plants of the genus Paulownia(paulownia Siebold & Zucc), or Adam's tree. The genus belongs to the family Norichnikovye.
The plant received its name from the patronymic of the daughter of the Russian Emperor Paul I - the Grand Duchess, Queen of the Netherlands, the beauty Anna Pavlovna. Name the genus Anna they couldn't - it already existed.
Paulownia - tall deciduous trees with large purple-lilac flowers with a bell-shaped calyx, collected in paniculate inflorescences. Moreover, flowering begins before the appearance of leaves.
Great friend of my father
Benjamin Franklin name – American scientist, political figure, one of the founding fathers of the United States - not only went down in world history, but also imprinted in the name of one of the plants that lived on the American continent. Genus franklinia (Franklinia Bartr.exMarch.) includes one view: franklinia alatamaha – a tree that grew until the end of the nineteenth century in the state of Georgia.
Franklinia was first discovered in 1765 by American botanists William and John Bartram in the Altamaha River Delta. They collected seeds from her and germinated them in the Philadelphia Botanical Garden. Bartram assigned the plant to a new genus, naming it after his father's great friend, Benjamin Franklin. After 20 years, Bartram's cousin Humphrey Marshall described and published in his catalog of the tree flora of North America a new species - Franklinia alatamaha.
In 1803, Franklinia disappeared from the wild. The main causes of extinction are considered to be deforestation for plowing plots. Currently, the tree is grown only in cultivation. Franklinia belongs to the tea family. She is loved by gardeners for her large white flowers that adorn the tree until late autumn, when its foliage turns orange-red.
monk and botanist
Charles Plumier joined the Order of Minims in his youth and began to study botany in a monastery. Later he participated in a number of expeditions to the Antilles and Central America. For his services, he received the position of chief royal botanist.
Plumier described such plant genera now known as Magnolia, Begonia and Brazilwood (Caesalpinia L.). The last genus was named in 1703 in honor of Andrea Cesalpino, an Italian botanist, physician and philosopher. But Plumier was not destined to remain the "godfather" of the genera he described. They were later used by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 edition of Species of Plants with reference to Plumier.
According to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the scientific names of plants published before May 1, 1753 are considered invalid, and formally the authorship remained with Linnaeus.
But back to Andrea Cesalpino. Already in the 16th century, he opened the era of artificial systems in botany. In his scientific work “16 Books on Plants” (1583), the botanist not only described a huge number of flora representatives, but also outlined a new system based on plant morphology, namely the structure of seeds, flowers and fruits. Cesalpino divided 840 plant species into 15 classes, using 4 categories of life forms proposed by Theophrastus, and combined them into 2 groups: woody and herbaceous.
But what are the plants named after the great Cesalpino? These are trees, less often shrubs, sometimes lianas belonging to the legume family. Their yellow or red flowers, collected in brushes, resemble butterflies. In England, caesalpinias are often called birds of paradise (Bird of Paradise). The wood of some species has long been used to produce red dye, and the plants themselves have been called redwoods.
magnolia - magnolia
Everyone knows magnolias - trees, less often shrubs from the family of the same name, with beautiful large fragrant flowers, growing in America and East Asia. Genus Magnolia (Magnolia L. ) was described by the French royal botanist Charles Plumier, who brought samples of these plants from an expedition to South America, and named after his compatriot botanist Pierre Magnol in 1703. Later this name was published by Carl Linnaeus. In Russian, the name “magnolia” was first used, which later transformed into “magnolia”.
Pierre Magnol - French botanist, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Montpellier. His merits in the field of systematic botany are enormous: he first introduced the category of family and tried to develop a natural classification of plants. But, since all of Magnolia's works were published before May 1, 1753, the names of plants proposed by him are unsuitable for use in botanical nomenclature.
Mathematician in biology
Trees of the genus grow in Africa and Australia Adansonia (Adansonia L. ) from the Malvaceae family. The genus includes 8 species of trees, but it is known thanks to one of its representatives - the baobab ( Adansonia digitata). The name was given to the genus by Carl Linnaeus in honor of the French botanist, traveler, philosopher Michel Adanson, who described the baobab in detail.
He was the author of the work "Natural Families of Plants" (1763), in which he proposed to group representatives of the flora in 58 families on the basis of common similar characteristics, giving all the same importance. His system was flawed because not all characteristics of plants are the same.
But Adanson's merits lie in the fact that, in search of the logical foundations of classification, he, having studied plants perfectly, divided them into 65 groups, each of which was based on any one trait. By the number of matches, Adanson determined the degree of proximity of subordinate groups, or taxa, to each other, becoming one of the pioneers in the application of mathematical methods in biology.
The name of Armen Leonovich Takhtadzhyan, a Soviet botanist, evolutionary biologist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a specialist in the field of plant systematics and the theory of evolution, is known far beyond the borders of our homeland. He created a new phylogenetic classification system for higher plants and a new system for the botanical and geographical zoning of our planet. A monotypic genus is named in his honor Takhtadzhyaniya (TakhtajaniaBaranova & J.- F. Leroy), which includes shrubs and low trees from the most primitive family of flowering plants - winter.
Tahtajyaniya is endemic to the island of Madagascar and is found in the humid forests of the mountain ranges of the northern part of the island. The plant was first described in 1909 and assigned to the genus Bubbia ( Bubbia). But in 1978, due to the strong difference from other bubbies, M. Baranova and J.-F. Leroy into a separate genus Takhtadzhyaniya with a single species of Perrier takhtadzhyaniya ( Takhtajania perrieri).
Takhtadzhyaniya are small trees with a height of 5 to 9 m, with a trunk thickness of up to 11 cm. Due to the lack of vessels, takhtadzhyaniya cannot withstand drought and grows only in places where sufficient moisture has been preserved for millions of years.
His Majesty Yuba II
In Chile, at an altitude of about 1200 m, the elephant palm, or Yubeya Chilean, is extremely rare ( Jubaea chilensis). These plants reach a height of 18 m. Their seeds and fruits are edible, and wine is made from the sugary juice of the trunk. The palm tree is the only species in the genus Yubher (Jubaea Kunth), described in 1815 by the famous German botanist Karl Kunt.
The genus is named after King Yuba II of Mauritania, who lived from 50 BC. e. to 23 a.d. e. Yuba II was a highly educated man of his era. He was interested in botany, wrote a book about Euphorbia found in the Atlas Mountains. It was he who appropriated the genus euphorbia ( Euphorbia) the name of his personal doctor Euforba.
German scholastic
Evergreen trees with leathery leaves and magnificent tubular flowers grow on the island of Madagascar and in South Africa. These are representatives of the extensive madder family of the genus Alberta (Alberta E. Mey), described in 1838 by the German botanist and physician Professor Ernest Mayer.
Albert the Great, whose name plants bear, is a German philosopher, theologian, scientist of the 12th century, teacher of Thomas Aquinas. He was known as a famous scholastic in Europe, while leaving a lot of work in the field of logic, botany, zoology, geography, mineralogy, astronomy, chemistry. Albert the Great introduced into European scientific circulation a large amount of knowledge gleaned from the works of ancient Greek and Arab scientists. His own studies of natural phenomena, flora and fauna are also known.
Manufacturers Albizzi
In the 13th century, the ancient Albizzi family was known in Florence, whose representatives made their fortune organizing cloth manufactories and supplying wool. One of the descendants of this genus, the Italian naturalist Filippo del Albizzi, brought from a trip to Constantinople an ornamental plant called Lankaran Albizia ( Albizia julibrissin), or, as it was called in Europe, silk acacia.
Albizia (Albizia Durazz) - a genus of tropical trees and shrubs of the legume family was isolated and described in 1772. Gardeners around the world are attracted by their spherical inflorescences, consisting of flowers with very long stamens. Puffs of inflorescences are in perfect harmony with the graceful openwork leaves of the plant.
Great Avicenna
In mangrove forests or thickets on saline, waterlogged silty soils of the tidal strip of ocean coasts, low trees and shrubs of the acanthus family grow. Their distinguishing features: leathery leaves, small inconspicuous flowers in spike-shaped inflorescences, respiratory roots (pneumatophores) growing vertically upwards.
These representatives of the flora are distinguished by an interesting feature: the seed germinates on the mother plant. After opening the fruit, the embryo with an already formed shoot and root system falls and takes root in the soil.
To this genus belongs Avicenna (Avicennia L. ), named by Linnaeus in honor of the medieval scientist, physician, philosopher, musician Avicenna (Abu Ali Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina). He lived in Central Asia and Iran, was a court physician and vizier under various rulers. His encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine "The Canon of Medicine" has been a reference book for European doctors for many centuries. He has written more than 450 works in 29 fields of science.
Exploring Hawaii
Otto Degener is a famous American botanist of the 20th century, a researcher of the flora of the Pacific coast, famous for his work on the flora of the Hawaiian Islands. For some time he worked at the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens and taught at the university. Based on materials and plant collections collected by Degener in the Fiji Islands, a new species of Fijian degeneria was described in 1941 ( Degeneration vitiensis).
In 1942, American botanists Albert Smith and Irving Bailey identified this plant not only as a separate genus ( Degeneration I. W. Bailey & A. C. SM. ), but also in a separate family of the same name.
Degeneria is a slender low tree with single flowers located under the axils of the leaves. Its seeds are remarkable in that the embryo is never dicotyledonous. It usually develops 3 or 4 cotyledons. A similar structure of the embryo is observed in some species of magnolia. Degeneration is recognized as a sensation of the 20th century for its archaic and primitive structure.
Captain of the Beagle
Fitzroya is one of the largest evergreen trees in South America. The height of individual specimens can exceed 50 m, and the diameter of the trunk reaches 5 m. The oldest specimen was dated at 3,600 years old. Genus Fitzroy (Fitzroya Lindl.) was described in 1851 by the English botanist John Lindley. The genus belongs to the cypress family and contains only one species - cypress-shaped Fitzroy ( F. cupressoides).
Fitzroy cypress
The genus is named after Robert Fitz Roy, an Englishman, captain of the Beagle ship, on which the famous scientist Charles Darwin made a round-the-world trip in 1831-1836. Robert Fitz-Roy is known as an officer in the British Navy, meteorologist, cartographer, governor-general of New Zealand. An interesting fact is that Fitz-Roy spoke publicly and under a pseudonym criticizing Darwin's evolutionary theory.
Watching through a microscope
In the tropics of Central and South America, plants of the genus Malpighia (Malpighia Plum. ex L.), belonging to the family of the same name. These are small evergreen trees up to 6 m high or shrubs. Flowers with five petals from white to red or purple. The fruits are red, orange or purple drupes.
The genus Malpighia was described but not made public by the French botanist Charles Plumier. Later, in 1753, the name of the taxon was published by Carl Linnaeus.
The genus is named after Marcello Malpighi, an Italian biologist, physician, founder of the microscopic anatomy of plants and animals, who lived in the 17th century. Malpighi conducted research in the field of histology, embryology and comparative anatomy. He was a member of the Royal Society of London. He was the first scientist to use a microscope in his research, which gave an increase of up to 180 times.
It was he who established the presence of ascending and descending currents of substances in plants and suggested the role of leaves in their nutrition. In his work "Plant Anatomy" (1671), Malpighi described the cellular structure of representatives of the flora, singled out the type of tissue - fibers. For more than 100 years, this work was the only one in the field of studying the anatomy of a plant organism.
"Apostle" Murray
In the tropical forests of India, Indochina, on the islands of Java and Sumatra, murrays grow - evergreen trees and shrubs of the rue family. Their young shoots are strongly pubescent, the leaves of some species are leathery, fragrant. They are added to vegetable and meat dishes, fried in ghee. Fragrant white or light cream flowers are arranged singly or collected in apical inflorescences. The plant can bloom up to 6 months a year.
There are countless species of trees, and all this diversity performs the main function on our planet - it takes care of purifying the air from carbon dioxide. Photos of tree varieties, as well as the names of tree species, are widely presented both in special and educational literature. Here you can not only get acquainted with such information, but also learn many interesting facts about green spaces.
Trees of different species are not so difficult to distinguish from each other if you know what kind of crowns and leaves they have. But if the crowns of trees are sometimes formed by people, then the shape of the leaves in representatives of one species is unchanged. However, in different types of trees, the leaves are so different that scientists have come up with special names for them.
Leaves that have one leaf blade that falls entirely in autumn are called simple. They are solid, like a birch and apple tree, and lobed, like a maple. Compound leaves are ternary, like those of clover and strawberries, or palmate, like those of. Unpaired pinnate leaves are also considered complex, in which several leaves are attached to the petiole, ending with one leaf, like in an acacia, as well as paired pinnate, in which the petiole ends with two leaves.
In the photo of the tree species below, you can see the leaves of both varieties:
What birch? Brief description and features of birch
Speaking about what types of trees there are, it’s worth starting with a birch - a symbol of Russia. Birch is considered one of the most common trees in the Northern Hemisphere. In total there are about 60 species of birch.
The photo of this type of tree (whose name comes from the ancient Indo-European word "bergos", meaning "glow, turn white") clearly shows that the birch bark is indeed white. Many songs, poems and legends are dedicated to this beauty, because she is part of the culture of the Slavs, Scandinavians, Finno-Ugric peoples and North American Indians.
Brief description of birch: height up to 30-45 m with a girth of the trunk 120-150 cm, but there are also shrubs and dwarf trees. A feature of birch is the white color of the bark, which it owes to the white resinous substance betulin, which fills the cell cavities. The outer part of the bark - birch bark - peels off easily. But in older trees, the bark on the lower part of the trunk is dark and cracked. A birch lives 100-120 years, but some trees live up to 400!
The flowers of the birch are collected in inflorescences - catkin-shaped thyrsus, which are known to everyone under the name "earrings". The birch fruit is a small, almost imperceptible nut, and its seeds are very light - 1g. there are about 5000 of them.
Speaking about what kind of birch, one description is not enough. It is important to talk about its valuable qualities. Birch has been serving people for a long time. She gives wood, bark, birch sap, healing buds and leaves. Birch bark is particularly durable due to the resinous substances that it contains. In Russia, 1000 years ago, they wrote and painted on birch bark. Archaeologists have found hundreds of ancient Russian manuscripts in Novgorod and other cities. And today they create beautiful paintings on birch bark.
The birch is photophilous and grows quickly. It overtakes other trees, does not allow them to develop, and even knocks down pine cones with its long and thin branches. However, young spruces get along well with birch trees - after all, they are not afraid of shadows, and the branches of the fir trees are directed downwards, so birch branches “do not scare” them. Birch trees reproduce simply - their extremely light seeds are carried to a distance of about 100 m from the mother tree.
Chestnut tree: what are the fruits of a chestnut tree, interesting facts
Chestnuts adorn the streets of many cities. In spring, they sparkle with white and pink candle-like buds, and closer to autumn they produce glossy brown fruits, beautiful but inedible. However, there is one chestnut with edible fruits that grows further south. Both trees, although they are called the same, are far from relatives - they belong to different families. And even the leaves have different shapes.
Chestnut belongs to the beech family. Some species, especially the sowing chestnut, have long been cultivated as fruit trees, and their wood is also used. This beautiful tree with a spherical crown is planted in parks. Chestnuts are drought sensitive, so they are sometimes planted over beer and wine cellars to get enough moisture.
What kind of fruit the chestnut has is clearly visible in the photo. The fruits of the sowing chestnut and related species are nuts in a prickly peel. They are very difficult to hold. But the nuts themselves are very useful. In southern countries, chestnut fruits are eaten raw, baked and fried, and they are also used to make a powder that is added to flour.
Why is the horse chestnut called? The familiar chestnut, known in Europe since the 16th century, is not a chestnut at all. It belongs to the Sapindaceae family, not the Beech family. There are several versions of why it was called horse. According to one of them, horses were fed and treated with flour from its fruits, inedible for humans. According to another version, the color of its fruits resembles the color of a bay horse.
The fruit of the horse chestnut tree is a three-leaved box enclosed in a prickly peel. It opens on the wings. These large shiny fruits are inedible. But the flour obtained from them is used for the production of not only individual medicines, but also glue, which in the old days was used for book bindings.
An interesting fact about the chestnut is listed in the Guinness Book of Records. An amazing copy of the tree, which is already more than 3000 years old, grows on the island of Sicily, on the slope of Mount Etna. It was called the "chestnut of a hundred horses" due to an old legend, according to which more than 600 years ago, a hundred knights, without dismounting from their horses, were able to hide under it from the rain. In 1780, the girth of its trunk was 57.9 m. This chestnut is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the thickest tree. True, over time it split, and today it has not one trunk, but several, but they all grow from one common root.
Dragon tree dracaena and his photo
An old Indian legend tells that a dragon once lived on the island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea, who hunted elephants and drank their blood. One day, the dragon was unlucky: an elephant crushed him, and where their blood mixed, a tree grew, which received the name "dracaena", that is, "dragon". Now dracaena is also called "dragon tree". And the origins of the legend can be found in the plant itself. If you cut its trunk, resin comes out from there, which quickly hardens and turns red. This resin is called "dragon's blood".
The Sinnobar dracaena or dragon tree growing on Socotra looks like a giant fancy umbrella. The crown of a young tree is a cap of linear-xiphoid, pointed leaves.
As you can see in the photo of the dracaena (dragon tree), there are additional branches on the trunk, each of which ends in a dense bunch of such leaves.
A relative of the Sinnobar dracaena- dragon dracaena - grows in the Canary Islands. Like all her relatives, she begins to bear fruit only at the age of 30-40, and can grow for centuries. But the dragon tree does not have growth rings, and therefore it is not easy to determine its true age. The Guanches, the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands, considered the dragon tree sacred, and its resin was used for embalming. Today, the sharp, leathery leaves of dracaena are used as brush material.
Which tree sheds bark? Eucalyptus and its homeland
Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia, where there are more than a hundred species. These are both shrubs and tall ones. This is one of the few trees that sheds bark rather than leaves. In autumn, their superficial thin coral-red bark falls off, exposing the lower green layer, which gradually turns red. In some eucalyptus trees, the bark is smooth and comes off in long ribbons, while in others it is covered with scales and remains on the trunk and thick branches. The wood of these trees is also unusual: depending on their type, it can be white, yellow or red.
Relic eucalyptus forests of Australia
The relict eucalyptus forests of Australia are a common sight on the Green Continent. These trees are photophilous and grow in both dry and wet places. They are famous for their wood, bark and gum, a sugary substance that is secreted from the trunk and used to make various medicines.
The Australian tea tree, from which the medicinal oil is extracted, is actually a relative of the eucalyptus and has nothing to do with the Chinese camellia, from the leaves of which tea is made.
As a dwelling, eucalyptus trees were chosen by koalas, or marsupial bears. These animals are not related to real bears. Koalas spend their whole lives on eucalyptus trees, eating leaves, crushing them, chewing them and storing them in their cheek pouches. When they eat, you should not disturb their calmness, otherwise these "bears" can get angry and put their sharp claws and teeth into action.
The rainbow eucalyptus grows wild on many tropical islands. It is interesting for its bark, which not only changes color with age, but in mature trees it shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow.
Mighty baobabs grow on the expanses of the African savannah. This variety of trees got its scientific name - adansonia palmate - in honor of the French scientist Michel Adanson and thanks to the five- or seven-fingered leaves. The tree is famous for its size - the height of a baobab can reach 40 m, and a thick trunk in diameter is about 10 m. And it is believed that this giant is able to exist for 5000 years. Baobabs grow not only in Africa, but also in Madagascar and Australia.
The trunk of a baobab is capable, like a sponge, of storing water reserves. Its long roots suck up moisture deep underground, allowing the tree to survive dry seasons.
Baobab flowers reach 20 cm in diameter. Moreover, they bloom only one night, and bats pollinate them. And in the morning the flowers wither, acquiring a putrid smell, and fall off.
Baobab fruits are somewhat similar to pumpkins - they have many seeds, pulp inside and a tough peel on the outside. They are healthy and high in calories. Monkeys love them, which is why the baobab has another name - monkey breadfruit.
During the dry season, baobabs shed their leaves, but in the rainy season they again show off their green crowns. An interesting fact about the baobab is that the inhabitants of Africa not only eat their fruits, but also use the leaves for sourdough and to treat malaria. In addition, fiber is obtained from the bast layer, which is located under the bark, and strong ropes and threads are made. In Senegal there is even a proverb: "Helpless, like an elephant, tied with a rope of baobab." Baobab is considered a sacred tree in Africa.
Huge hollows often form in the trunk of the baobab. In Africa they are used as water reservoirs. And in one Australian town in the hollow of a baobab, which has a trunk with a diameter of 6 m, they set up a prison.
Elephants, unlike monkeys, eat not only the fruits of the baobab. They gather near a tree, break its branches, peel off the bark, leaves, and eat it all. Therefore, it is rare to find a tree with an intact crown - most often it is partially eaten away. No wonder the baobab is also called the elephant diner.
What types of trees are there: Thule
What types of trees are there that are legendary? In many countries, they talk about a tree that unites the entire universe. Its branches are a symbol of the sky, the trunk is the earthly world, and the roots are the underworld. One biblical legend speaks of a tree of life that grew in the middle of the Garden of Eden. And today on Earth there are trees about which legends are composed and which are sometimes given the old name - "the tree of life."
The Tule tree is the name of the Mexican taxodium from the cypress family, which grows in the city of Santa Maria del Tule. Its trunk is considered the thickest in the world and has a girth of 36.2 m, and a diameter of 11.62 m. The legend of the local Zapotec Indians says that this tree was planted by the priest of the wind god Ehecatl about 1400 years ago.
On a giant tree trunk, some people notice images of various animals, for which they call him a day of life.
For 300 years, in the Tenere desert, on the border with the Sahara, an acacia, nicknamed the “Tenere tree”, grew, and there was nothing around it within a radius of 400 km. She was rightfully considered the loneliest tree on Earth. It was fed by deep underground waters. All travelers took care of this tree. But in 1973, a lone acacia tree was hit by a truck with a drunk driver. The remains of the acacia were transferred to the National Museum of Niger, and a metal tree was installed in its place.
Long-lived tree: Methuselah pine
The oldest single tree on our planet grows in the US state of California. This is a spiny intermountain pine, which is already about 4900 years old. She even has a name - Methuselah, given in honor of the legendary biblical character who lived for 969 years.
Now, tourists are not allowed near the long-lived pine Methuselah, so that they do not dismantle the tree for souvenirs.
In the desert of Bahrain, an island nation in the Persian Gulf, there is a lone acacia, which the locals also call the "tree of life." They believe that it was in this place that the Garden of Eden was located. Today it remains a mystery how this acacia survives in the sands - after all, there is no water nearby. The most plausible version says that the root system of the tree spreads very widely and feeds from distant sources. The tree of life reaches a height of 9.6 m.
Sequoia tree: photos and interesting facts
The evergreen sequoia tree is considered the national symbol of California. This plant belongs to the cypress family and is sometimes called "mahogany". But the sequoiadendron - a representative of a different genus - was called the "giant sequoia". In the wild, these trees grow on the Pacific coast of North America. Individual sequoia specimens reach a height of more than 100 m. An interesting fact about the sequoia is that these trees are among the highest on Earth, their age is 3500 years.
Fifteen of the evergreen sequoias that have survived to this day have a height of more than 110 m, and the record was set by a sequoia named "Hyperion". Its height, measured in 2006, was 115 m. Scientists believe that any tree, in principle, cannot reach 122-123 m, because the force of gravity will not allow tree sap to rise to such a height.
Sequoiadendron "General Sherman" named after a participant in the American Civil War. This tree is not the tallest (only 83.8 m), but in terms of wood volume it holds the world record - 1487 m3. And the age of this giant is 2300-2700 years.
See other photos of the sequoia tree in the photo gallery below:
Photo gallery
Sequoia National Park, founded in 1890, is famous for its quoyadendron, also known as the "mammoth tree" because of its size and the resemblance of giant branches to mammoth tusks. For millions of years, sequoiadendrons have grown throughout the northern hemisphere, but today there are only 30 groves left, including those in the National Park. In addition, there is a museum dedicated to the history of sequoiadendrons. In the trunk of a sequoiadendron, an arch was cut through, through which a person can pass.
Giant trees have always sought to be named after prominent people. The scientific name of the sequoiadendron - "wellingtonia" comes from the name of the English commander in chief, the winner at Waterloo. And the genus of these trees is named after Sequoia (George Hess) (c. 1770 - c. 1843) - the Cherokee Indian leader who invented the Cherokee alphabet and founded the first newspaper in this language.
The flora of the Earth is huge and diverse: it consists of 350,000 species, and according to some botanists, even of 500,000 species of plants.
The plant kingdom includes algae, fungi, slugs, and seed plants, which are subdivided into gymnosperms and flowering family, and among the latter, herbaceous and woody species are distinguished. It is known that man has already described and systematized almost all the diversity of plant species, creating a natural system of the plant world based on the scientific principles of establishing family ties between certain groups of plants. The modern system of the plant world is subdivided into systematic units subordinate to each other, among which the main unit is the species. Related tree species are grouped into genera, and related genera are grouped into families. This is followed by ever larger associations: orders, classes, departments, and, finally, the highest systematic unit - the kingdom of plants.
tree classification
Usually, woody plants are divided into the following groups according to the nature of the structure of the main stems and height: trees, shrubs, shrubs, semi-shrubs and lianas.
Wood
A tree is considered to be a large plant with a perennial woody main stem, usually called a trunk, which grows in height with its top. The rate of growth of trees in height depends on environmental conditions, the geographical area of growth and the biological characteristics of this species. The tree grows in height inconstantly, growth changes throughout the life of the tree until it stops completely.The height of the tree is different for different tree species and ranges from several to many tens of meters, and in some cases reaches 120 m or more. This height is reached by evergreen sequoia and giant sequoia, growing on the California coast of North America in mountain forests, and Australian eucalyptus trees. The trees of our forests do not reach such sizes, but many of them grow up to 40-50 m or more. So, common spruce, Sakhalin fir, Siberian larch, etc. reach 40 m or more, oriental spruce, European beech 50 m or more, Schrenk spruce in favorable conditions 85 m, Caucasian fir 65 m. Individual European fir trees sometimes reach 60 ( 90) m height. European larch and have a height of up to 54 m, summer oak 40-50 m, plane trees of the Transcaucasus 45-50 m. Such species as birch, aspen, linden, elm, elm, Norway maple, etc., rarely exceed 25-35 m.
Trees are a form of woody plants consisting of a root, trunk and crown. In 2015, there were three trillion trees on our planet. Russia ranks first in their number - 640 billion. But every year, due to climate change and deforestation, their number is decreasing.
Tree classification
Coniferous.
1. Coniferous (evergreen) - these trees belong to the domain - eukaryotes, the kingdom - plants, the department - conifers. They grow in a temperate climate zone, as they like a moderately warm climate and sufficient moisture. The largest number of species is found in the northern hemisphere. Their sizes can range from dwarf to giant.
In the modern world, conifers include woody plants with one trunk and side branches located on it. These are araucaria, pine and cypress trees such as spruce, cypress, juniper, sequoia, yew, kauri, fir, cedar, pine and larch. If a plant has cones in which seeds develop, and the leaves look like long needles, then it can be safely called coniferous.
Araucaria.
Pine.
Cedar
Cypress
It is to coniferous plants that the oldest and tallest trees belong.
The oldest Methuselah tree
This spiny intermountain pine was discovered in 1953 by botanist Edmund Shulman. The approximate age of the tree is 4846 years. It was planted in 2831 BC. To date, this tree is considered alive and it grows in the Inyo National Forest in California (USA) at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level.
The tallest tree is Hyperion
The height of this tree is 115m. The trunk diameter is 4.84 m. It grows in the US state of California. Approximate age 700 - 800 years. This tree was discovered in 2006 by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor.
Deciduous.
2. Deciduous (small-leaved and broad-leaved) differ in the shape of the crown, the color of the leaves and the presence of fruits. These include trees such as maple, aspen, linden, ash. Trees are also divided according to the life of the leaves into evergreen and deciduous. Deciduous ones shed their leafy cover closer to winter, and in the spring they again release buds, from which green leaves grow again. Evergreen trees change their leaves gradually at any time of the year.
Types of trees (photos and pictures).
Maple.
Oak.
Chestnut.
Linden.
There are also famous trees among the deciduous trees.
The largest tree is the Hundreds of Horses Chestnut.
One of the oldest chestnut trees in the world is known as Castagno dei cento cavalli. It grows on the east coast of Sicily, eight kilometers from the active crater of Mount Etna. The chestnut entered the Guinness Book of Records as the tree with the largest trunk coverage (in 1780, its circumference was 57.9 m). This tree has one root and several trunks above the ground. If you believe the legend, then Giovanna of Aragon, the Queen of Naples, along with a hundred knights, fell into a thunderstorm. All 100 travelers were then able to hide under this tree. Since then, it has been called Chestnut "hundreds of horses".
Chestnut "hundreds of horses". Collection of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Jean Pierre Huel - French painter and engraver (1735 - 1813)
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