Trees Around The World

2,000-year-old seeds were discovered in 1963 inside an ancient jar in Israel. They were planted in 2005 and a tree that had been extinct for over 1800 years sprouted.



Methuselah (tree) sprouted back in 2005, when agriculture expert Solowey germinated his antique seed. It had been pulled from the remains of Masada, an ancient fortification perched on a rock plateau in southern Israel.

For a while, the Judean date palm was the sole representative of his kind: Methuselah’s variety was reportedly wiped out around 500 A.D.

At 2,000 years old, Methuselah’s seed isn’t the most aged to be used to grow a plant—not by a long shot. Back in 2012, a team of Russian scientists unearthed a cache of seeds from a prehistoric squirrel burrow that had been covered in ice. They eventually succeeded in germinating the 32,000-year-old specimens.

The Sycamore Gap tree, at Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland, UK.





Also called the Robin Hood tree, since it was prominently featured in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."



It was deliberately cut down on 28 September 2023 by some 16 year old asshole who has been arrested for the crime.

https://apnews.com/article/hadrians-wall-sycamore-gap-felled-tree-05975a763c90648b4594d6e64b42e9f2

Today I learned the background of ‘Tree Hugger’



What is the origin of the term Tree hugger?

"The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters. But their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. And now those villages are virtual wooded oases amidst an otherwise desert landscape.

Not only that, the Bishnois inspired the Chipko movement (chipko means “to cling” in Hindi) that started in the 1970s, when a group of peasant women in the Himalayan hills of northern India threw their arms around trees designated to be cut down. Within a few years, this tactic, also known as tree satyagraha, had spread across India, ultimately forcing reforms in forestry and a moratorium on tree felling in Himalayan regions." Info shared by Ecologically Conscious.

Photo is of village women of the Chipko movement in the early 70's in the Garhwal Hills of India, protecting the trees from being cut down.