Cerbera Odollam – The Suicide or Murder Tree
Cerbera odollam, is a dicotyledonous angiosperm, commonly known as a suicide tree. The tree is also called pong-pong and othalanga and this plant belongs to poisonous Apocynaceae family. The plant yields a potent poison that has been used for suicide and murder, which includes the yellow and common oleanders.
The seeds are excessively toxic, containing cerberin as the main active...
Larch – An Evergreen Wild Tree
Larches look for the entire world like evergreen trees. Larches are conifers in the genus Larix, in the family Pinaceae. Larch is also called Larix, is a long waving twigs that have tufts of small needles; they even have cones. But come fall those needles turn yellow and fall off just like the leaves of any deciduous tree.
And...
A Rare Sight of Double Tree of Casorzo
A rare sight of a double tree of Casorzo growing atop another tree Of course, it's not a sight that you get to see every day. But here you can learn about a unique tree growing between Grana and Casorzo in Piemonte, Italy, recognized as the “Double Tree of Casorzo” or Bialbero de Casorzo in Italian. This is a...
Yareta – A 3000 Years Old Alien-looking Plant
Yareta is something green and alien-looking growing plant in South America. In the first inspection, you might consider that it is some extraterrestrial species. Which is using the remote grasslands of the continent to start a foothold on planet Earth. Yet though alien looks like a green mass of cells have their origins very much in this world.
This...
The Dead Man’s Fingers
Xylaria polymorpha, generally known as dead man's fingers, is a saprobic fungus. The plant habitually inhabitant of forest and woodland areas, normally growing from the bases of rotting or injured tree stumps and decaying wood.
The Xylaria polymorpha is a very rare and distinct species of fungus that is widely distributed throughout the deciduous forests of North America and Europe....
The Cylindrical Grandidier’s Baobab Tree
Grandidier’s Baobab Tree is the biggest and most re-known of Madagascar’s species of Baobabs. It is also known as “Adansonia Grandidieri”, actually an imposing and unusual tree endemic to the island of Madagascar. It is an endangered species mainly threatened by the encroachment of agricultural land. When you see this unusual tree, you’ll come to know that Grandidier’s baobabs...
Spectacular Yellow Flowering Golden Chain Tree
The spectacular springtime show of yellow flowers gives Laburnum its common name Golden Chain Tree or golden rain. But the laburnum also has its dark side, for it is one of the most poisonous trees growing in the British Isles. Like so many of the more colorful trees that grow in Britain. This lovely tree is not native to...
How to do Tabebuia Tree Care
Tabebuia Tree Care
The Tabebuia tree is commonly known as the golden trumpet tree. It is semi-evergreen or semi-deciduous shedding foliage for a short period in a late spring tree. Tabebuia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae and is very similar to Tabebuia ochracea.
Tabebuia “Handroanthus chrysotrichus synonym Tabebuia chrysotricha,” is the national tree of Brazil....
The Black Sapote – Chocolate Pudding Fruit
The Black Sapote “Diospyros nigra” is a species of persimmon in the family Ebenaceae. It is also called “chocolate pudding fruit” and black snap apple. Black Sapote is a tropical fruit mostly grown in Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean, and Colombia. Sapote means soft edible fruit and has no relation with white sapote or mamey sapote. The tree can...
Top 25 Oak Facts You Should Know
Oak Facts
The oak tree is a deciduous tree that grows in temperate zones around the world, and it is one of the most important trees in the world. Oak trees are evergreen, which means that they keep their leaves all year round. They can grow for hundreds of years and live for about 500 years. The oldest oak tree...
Pink Trumpet Tree Tabebuia heterophylla
The eye-catching Pink Trumpet Tabebuia heterophylla Tree grows at a reasonable rate from a slim pyramid when young to a broad silhouette, 20 to 40 feet tall. The palmately compound green leaves are evergreen throughout most of their range but may be briefly deciduous as the new leaves emerge. The showy display of pink or white, bell-shaped blooms appears...
Juniper Tree – A Tree Useful in Landscape Plantings
Juniper Tree or Juniperus are trees that we call red cedar is really a juniper. But many others are shrub-like and as such are extremely useful in landscape plantings especially since they will tolerate poor soil. They do well by the seashore as well as in hot dry places, and they cover banks beautifully.
Juniper Tree is great variety in...
Magnolia Tree – A Handsome Ornamental Tree
The magnolias are handsome ornamental trees. The Magnolia Tree with its showy flowers, its dark green leaves, and its relatively small size. Magnolia Tree is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.
They are generally thought of as southern plants, but...
Jabuticaba – A Rare Fruit Tree Bear Fruits on Its Trunk
There’s a tree in Brazil called "Jabuticaba", whose fruit grows directly from the trunk and branches of the tree. It can be found in the states of Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, in the south of Brazil. Jabuticaba's popularity has been likened to that of grapes in the United States. The name Jabuticaba is derived from the Tupi words...
Butcher’s Broom – The Fruits Grow on its leaves
The mysterious and rarely seen Butcher's Broom, or (Ruscus aculeatus), is a low-growing permanent shrub. It has hard, erect stems and very rigid leaves that lay off on a sharp spine. Thus, from the center of the leaves grow small greenish-white flowers. The flowers flourish in early spring and grow into red berries in autumn.
The small red berries...
The Best Ferns to Grow Indoor
Ferns “Many Genera” give a better softening effect to an indoor environment that makes good houseplants. Many people are familiar with that old favorite, the Boston fern Nephrolepsis exaltata ‘Bostoniensis’ ” a very easy indoor plant with rich green, arching fronds. In the variety ‘Fluffy Ruffles’ they are rather upright and have frilled edges.
Even more foolproof is its...
The Grass Tree Xanthorrhoea glauca
The Grass Tree is also known as “Xanthorrhoea glauca”, is a large plant in the genus Xanthorrhoea mainly widespread in eastern Australia. The tree has many branches and its trunk can grow in excess of 5 meters tall. The grass tree is sporadically seen in large communities in woodland on steep edges and sides of gorges. It is mainly...
Tabebuia and Handroanthus
Genus and Family: The genus Tabebuia is native to the Amazon rainforest and other tropical parts of Mexico and Central and South America. It included nearly 100 species of trees commonly known as trumpet trees, named so because of the shape of the flowers. In 2007, about 30 species of trees in Tabebuia were renamed Handroanthus when molecular studies...
Ficus – Most Popular House Plant
One of the most popular houseplants is the weeping fig, also called Ficus benjamina”, normally just called “ficus”. Though related to the edible fig, it does not bear fruit, but it makes a beautiful display as an indoor plant. Thus, a bushy tree that might grow up to 50 feet in its native Malaya.
It can easily be kept...
Maples Leaf (Acer), Grow Nature’s Most Favorite Tree
Well, everyone knows what a Maples Leaf looks like, right? It is the leaf on the Canadian flags as well, the one that lends its shape to maple sugar candies. Well, yes and no? While most maple leaves do have a three-lobed outline, they vary enormously in size and shape. Therefore, with some the lobes are barely indented with...
Why Drunken Trees Behave in Mysterious Way
What are Drunken Trees?
Drunken trees are a stand of trees displaced from their normal vertical alignment. This most commonly occurs in northern subarctic taiga forests of black spruce under which intermittent permafrost or ice wedges have melted, causing trees to tilt at various angles. Some trees survive their soil eroding and continue to grow. Others collapse or drown as...
1,400-Year-Old Ginkgo Tree Still Sheds Golden Leaves
Once a year, this majestic 1,400-year-old ginkgo tree showcases a transition into fall in a remarkable way and its countless leaves change into a radiant shade of gold. The tree is located within the walls of the Gu Guanyin Buddhist Temple, in the Zhongnan Mountain region of China. This wonderful autumnal display entices travelers from all over the world....
Spruce – An Evergreen Symmetrical Spire Shape Tree
Spruces or Picea are tall, fast growing evergreen trees with symmetrical spire shapes. You can distinguish them from firs. Which they resemble, in two ways; spruce needles can be rolled between the fingers, whereas the needles of the fir and hemlock feel flat. And Picea cones hang from the branches rather then sit on top of them.
A spruce...
The Famous Octopus Tree of Oregon
The Octopus Tree of Oregon is a huge Sitka spruce situated a few hundred feet from Cape Meares Lighthouse on the Oregon Coast, in the United States. The massive tree is shaped similar to an inverted octopus with branches growing like giant tentacles from its 50-foot base.
The octopus tree has no central trunk. Instead, six candelabra limbs extend horizontally...
Unbelievable Tree of 40 Fruits
New York-based artist Sam Van Ken created a tree of 40 fruits using the ancient technique of “chip grafting." His family lives in Pennsylvania, and he grew up on the family farm. He’s an associate professor of sculpture at Syracuse University.
Therefore, each tree produces forty different types of stone fruit of the genus Prunus, ripening sequentially from July...