Tree Facts | Facts about Trees

Potential renewable energy resources

Energy crops, like switchgrass or fast-growing trees, could provide more than 5,000 megawatts of electricity annually by the year 2010, supporting more than 170,000 jobs and diversifying local farming operations.

Wind power fact about California

In 1990 in California alone, wind power offset the emission of more than 2.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and 15 million pounds of other pollutants - the same amount of air quality provided by more than 150 million trees.

Life in the rainforest

A single tree in a rainforest can be home to thousands of different creatures.

How tall is the world's tallest tree

A 379.1' Redwood in Redwood National Park is currently the world's largest tree

Illinois state university cuts down trees to honor them

Can't see the morons for the trees Illinois State University has cleared away the trees in front of Stevenson Hall so they can begin construction of the sculptured centerpiece of its Fell
Arboretum, an area set aside for the preservation and study of trees.

Are sharks older than trees?

Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years, so they're older than trees, which appeared roughly 350 million years ago.

Do monkeys have words for different predators?

Vervet monkeys use different alarm calls for leopards, eagles, and snakes, and other vervets react to each call in the right way, like climbing trees or looking up.

Where do chimpanzees sleep?

Chimpanzees build a fresh sleeping nest in the trees almost every night by bending and weaving branches and leaves together.

How did a snake wipe out Guam's birds?

The brown tree snake was accidentally brought to Guam around WWII and wiped out most of the island's native forest birds, one of the worst invasive species disasters ever recorded.

What is the smallest bear?

The sun bear of Southeast Asia is the smallest bear species and has an extremely long tongue for slurping honey and insects out of trees.

How did the Industrial Revolution change moth colors?

During the Industrial Revolution, soot darkened trees in England, and dark-colored peppered moths became more common because they were better camouflaged, a famous example of natural selection.

What was the spaghetti tree hoax?

On April Fools' Day in 1957, the BBC aired a fake report showing Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees, and many viewers believed it.

What is the tallest tree in the world?

The tallest known tree in the world is a coast redwood in California named Hyperion, which stands about 380 feet tall.

What was Prometheus?

Prometheus was a Great Basin bristlecone pine in Nevada, about 4,900 years old when it was cut down in 1964.

Where did Washington, DC's cherry trees come from?

Washington, DC's famous cherry trees were a gift from the mayor of Tokyo in 1912.

What is Madrid's famous bear statue?

Madrid's famous statue of a bear and a strawberry tree is the city's symbol.

Do bananas grow on trees?

Bananas don't grow on trees. The banana plant is technically a giant herb, and its "trunk" is made of tightly packed leaf stalks.

Where did apples originate?

Apples originated in the mountains of Kazakhstan, where wild apple trees still grow, and the city of Almaty's name is linked to the word for apple.

Why can't you grow the same apple from its seed?

Apple seeds don't grow into the same variety as their parent, so apple growers use grafting to produce trees of the same type.

Is Isaac Newton's apple tree still alive?

The apple tree said to have inspired Isaac Newton's ideas about gravity still grows at his childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor, in England.

Where did navel oranges come from?

All navel oranges are clones from a single mutated tree in Brazil, and one of the original parent trees planted in Riverside, California, in 1873 is still alive.