Our planet earth is a wonderful place, full of natural beauties, ranging from mountains to forests and so on. While because of the war, the situation is not ideal at the moment to visit the Yemeni island of Socotra, where unique photogenic “dragon’s blood trees” grow, but there are many mysterious forests in other parts of the world with unique and unusual trees. Where can you walk through an unusual forest or its remnant? We will answer the questions in the following; stay tuned!
Deadvlei (Namibia)
The name ”dead wetland” implies that nothing reproduces in the often photographed clay basin. It is thought that more than a thousand years ago, a swollen river created shallow pools in which acacia trees grew. But two hundred years later, the climate changed dramatically, and the area dried up.
The heat was so intense that the trees dried up before they could decay. So today, we can enjoy the fantastic sight of bare black trunks surrounded by orange sand dunes. Namibia’s Quiver Tree Forest is also worth visiting, with its lively scattered aloes.
Wistman’s Wood (England)
Dartmoor in Devon, England, is famous for the terrifying story of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It’s no wonder, then, that it’s here that you can walk through a forest like something out of a scary fairy tale.
After all, Wistman’s name is said to be derived from the local term wisht, meaning mysterious or cursed. Dominant tree species are strangely twisted oaks, some of them perhaps as old as five hundred years. Among them are moss- and lichen-covered boulders. Caution is needed as one of the lichens (Bryoria smithii) is very rare.
Baobab Alley (Madagascar)
Another iconic scene is the stand of some twenty-five baobab trees that line part of the dirt road (just 260 metres) between the Malagasy towns of Belon’i Tsiribihina and Morondava. These trees grow up to 30 metres high.
Initially, their crowns towered over the surrounding dense tropical forest, which has become the victim of large-scale logging. The popularity of the avenue among tourists has led to establishing a paid parking area and a small information centre. It is worth travelling seven kilometres further to the intertwined “baobabs of love”.
Sequoia National Park (USA)
Baobab trees may look imposing in the arid African landscape, but they are dwarfed next to California’s giant sequoias. Five of the ten largest trees in the world in terms of volume growth in the Giant Forest, including one of the tallest trees on the planet (83.8m), which has even got its own name: General Sherman. Even the fallen redwood, Tunnel Log, which cars drive under, has gained fame. However, the vast majority of the park is wilderness accessible only on foot or horseback.
Sagano Bamboo Grove (Japan)
Another forest is one of the densest for a change. In the northwest corner of Kyoto, in the Arashiyama area, there are thousands of slender bamboos waving gracefully in the wind. When the paths between them aren’t bustling with Instagram-wielding tourists, it’s a great way to listen to the mystically soothing sounds. They even prompted Japan’s Ministry of the Environment to list the bamboo forest as one of the country’s 100 acoustic wonders.
Crooked Forest (Poland)
Krzywy Las, situated south of Gryfino, was initially planted in the 1930s. After several years, trunks of about four hundred pines began to turn at right angles to the north. Nowadays, the shape of the pines resembles a sickle.
Unlike similarly deformed trees at the southernmost point of New Zealand, where strong winds are to blame, there is still no satisfactory explanation for the mysterious bending of the trunks in the Polish forest. Of course, a few theories have been advanced, but the truth is hardly known.
Pando (USA)
Forty hectares of aspen poplars in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah do not look strange at first glance. What makes it unique lies underground, a single root system connecting the trees. Essentially, therefore, it is one organism that, at around 6,000 tonnes, is the largest and heaviest on the planet. It is also one of the oldest – scientists speak of 80,000 years, some even going as far as a million. The ability to restore it has unfortunately begun to decline in recent years.
