Forests and Trees I Want To See

aka my "Trees To Hug" list.

The Pacific-Northwest North American Redwood Forests

Them's some big damn trees. And old, too! Here's some facts and pictures about the redwood forests.

Sherwood Forest

Yes, it is a real forest! Nottinghamshire is a county on the eastern coast of England, and the 'Nottingham' of the Robin Hood stories is the county capitol. Sherwood Forest is a big tourist attraction for hikers these days, and Robin Hood's Oak is a giant, very old oak tree that supposedly sheltered Robin and his Merry Men. Last I heard,though,the government of England was considering opening up the Forest to fracking, including a site less than one thousand meters away from the Oak. I'll check for updates and hope that plan has changed, but this is the nation, after all, that built a highway right next to Stonehenge.

Various "Merlin's Trees" around the British Isles

According to most Arthurian legends, Merlin, despite aging well, isn't somebody you bump into at the local pub anymore because after the fall of Camelot, he either took refuge in or under a very old tree, or was trapped or turned into one by the trechery of either his once-lover Nimoue or the favorite final-boss of the Arthur tales, Morgan le Faye. Some woman or another, usually, because what good is a morality tale about chivalry if we can't douse it in patriarchy like some film noir except on an illuminated manuscript? Anyway, these legends usually promise a return someday so everyone can feel like there's still a chance for a happy ending; when England is in dire need, Merlin will supposedly leave his tree and resume his mantle. (The same is said of Arthur himself, by the way, as well as Sir Francis Drake. The story trope or motif is called The King Under The Mountain, and you see it in a lot of tales from medieval or early-Modern Europe, as well as in the modern children's Christmas song, "Frosty the Snowman".)

The baobab tree in, I think, Kenya? That's used as a bus station.

No I'm serious! Baobabs can get so freaking huge that there's one I read about once that's been tunnelled into and used as a small station on the public bus line. Baobabs are just generally cool: apart from getting huge, they hold impressive amounts of water in their trunks like cacti do, and they fill so many ecological niches in their habitats.


General tree species which are cool

Maple trees

Maples give syrup! And their leaves are pretty and you can stick the seed pods on your nose! I basically just like maples because we had one in the backyard of the house I was born in.

Yew

It sounds like both English's second-person pronoun and the word for a female sheep! Yew trees have a lot of connotations of life and death in European folklore. Yggdrasil, the Norse World Tree that was the center of the cosmos, was a yew, and they have strong connotations of death in English folklore.

Apple trees

Because apples are awesome,and used to be a major staple of American food and culture. Lotta cool apple lore to relate, and I fill that in here when it isn't quarter to ten in the morning. Here's some prompts to jog my memory later:

Cherry blossom trees, aka Sakura

Someday I want to go to the annual Cherry Blossom Festival held in Washington DC for Hatsume (the Japanese name for the tradition; we've just imported it). Cherry blossoms have a lot of significance in Japanese culture, and it's both powerful and beautiful. Hatsume festivals occur around February or March, when the cherry blossoms bloom, and the local weather stations across Japan all go into "blossom watch" mode, giving daily updates on the outlook for whent he trees in their area will bloom. I've been trying to grow one as a bonsai from seed for the past few years, but doing it this way is notoriously difficult and I haven't had luck so far.

Famous Fictional Forests and Trees

Always, they go into the forest...

Sam's tree in My Side of the Mountain

#dreamhome, but if it were real, some jerk landlord would have figured out a way to turn it into a "rustic experience" AirBnb by now. Even running off to the woods ain't what it used to be.

The tree in Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

A whole book told from the pointof view of a tree! Wow! If anyone can pull that off, it's Applegate!

The Hundred Acre Wood

hundred acre wood map

It was based on a real wood behind the author's farm!


Finally, as a reward for scrolling this far...

Please enjoy this arboreal YouTube video from The Classic Era of YouTube™.