Slow--VERY Slow--Walking Ent strides across the New Zealand countryside

[SorellaLaBefana]

For many of us a high point of Tolkien's trilogy was when the walking forest of Ents came to the rescue of the intrepid Middle-Earth coadventurers as they journeyed through a changing world and the complexities of human nature

This particular tree was named New Zealand's 2024 Tree of the year by the Arboricultural Association.

...Tree of the Year campaign is meant to recognize and celebrate the significant role that trees play within our communities—not only enhancing our local environments but also “providing a sense of place for past, present, and future generations”

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/a-walking-tree-won-2024-tree-of-the-year-in-new-zealand/

The tree species itself is also a wonder.

Starting life as a tiny epiphyte blooming orchid-like in the canopy of a host tree it sends roots creeping down the outside of the host until after, perhaps a century or two, reaching the ground and then strangling the host which dies and decays away leaving the strange hollow pseudotrunks seen in our tree. They then can live for over a thousand years.




https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/metrosideros-robusta/

[Easterncedar]

1. Ents are my favorite!

Thanks!

[2naSalit]

2. I have to look for it...

But I have a picture of an Ent that's about a 90 minute drive from my home. I'll post it when I find it.

[Phoenix61]

3. Very cool! nt

[jaxexpat]

4. Yeah, they make you focus on their leaves and needles and cones, so you don't notice their trunks marching.

Give me a good honest invasive any day. You can trust bamboo. It grows before your eyes, unafraid and bristling with cock-roaches.......Well maybe not bristling, ,,,so much....more festooned actually.... and not with cock-roaches, really. Lets talk about Australian cedar, great barbecue wood, a real Barbie tree.

[PatrickforB]

5. Excellent pictures. Amazing these fellows can live 1000 years or more. n/t

[Solly Mack]

6. :)