6 of the World’s Weirdest Trees

Today we're talking about the weirdest trees in the world, from the psychedelic rainbow eucalyptus, to the dragon's blood tree, to the jabuticaba that grows delicious fruits on its trunk.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

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[loganl]

Last week: Everything is actually a fish
This week: Nothing is actually a tree
😂

[loveboundselkie]

As a librarian at an arboretum, THANK YOU for agreeing that trees aren’t real, Hank and SciShow!

Let me tell you that was a weird moment of realization two weeks into my fancy new plant librarian job.

[biazacha]

I knew Jabuticabeira would be here as soon as I saw the title. Jabuticaba is actually the name of the fruit and the taste is alright - you just gonna be careful looking up cause as you can imagine all those little berries popping means the bark itself is pretty brittle…. when I was 11 had to go to the hospital cause a piece fell into my eye 😂

[caroljo]

I live in SoCal, and there are Yucca trees literally EVERYWHERE! It's illegal to cut one down, and one man bought a lot that he wanted to build a house on. But there was a problem. Right in the center of the lot was a Yucca tree, and he wasn't allowed to cut it down or even move it. So he redesigned his home with an open-air patio in the center of the house.

[cameliaac]

"Its like a tree that eats trees" the excitement on his face🤭

[CaptainMonarda]

I'm a horticulture student and I love your plant based videos! Thank you for making plants interesting for people.

[jacoL]

I would love a "Bizarre Beasts" style channel or video series which focuses on weird and wacky flora/plants !

[bartman]

My toxic trait is every time I see an interesting tree, I want one

[christopherchapman]

missed opportunity at 5:30 "treenager"

[bgbrofish]

Just went to Hawaii and saw two of these beautiful trees! Rainbow eucalyptus and banyans

[buzzsburner.]

Edit: ( a couple other trees than the redwood too)

I'm honestly kind of suprised redwoods aren't on here. they might be pretty mainstream as a 'cool and weird tree', but there's a lot more than just them being tall. not only are they the tallest trees, they also support a variety of organisms ONLY found high in their canopies; bacteria, vertebrates, mosses, and even other trees that only grow out of their already existing high branches. they also grow roots straight out of those canopies to catch the mist coming off the pacific coast, on top of being one of the only known conifers to be a clonal species; like the Joshua tree in this video, they can grow 'new trees' (genetic copies) of themselves, straight up from their roots. because they're rhizomous, (and we don't know if this is something specific to clonal conifers, or just the coast redwood) when one gets cut down or dies, a 'fairy ring' pops up around the stump, which is essentially just those new rhizomous trees from its roots, but in a perfect fairytale-esque circle around where the tree fell.

Baldcypress trees are also a very weird tree. they are one of few deciduous conifers we know of (think pine tree that loses all its needles in the winter like maples, oaks, locusts etc.), and they also almost exclusively live in swamps. because of this, they have very wide bases with TONS of large 'spikes' sticking up through the water connected to their roots, called knees. nobody really knows why they grow these knees, some people think it's because they pull in oxygen, but the trees showed no lethargy in growth when they were cut off in multiple studies (my personal theory is that it's because they were evolved to break up big waves that could knock the tree over in the swamps they are native to.

quaking aspen are another amazing tree. they have white bark, just like paper birches, and with beautiful yellow, nearly circular leaves in the winter, and yes, they are also clonal with their rhizomes. however, while this sounds like a normal tree, one in particular is technically the OLDEST, LARGEST KNOWN, AND HEAVIEST LIVING ORGANISM IN THE WORLD. and while this sounds ridiculous, there is a 'forest' in Utah, which is just one individual quaking aspen named 'Pando' ('I spread' in latin) which has grown to a size of 110 acres, weighing 13 million pounds, with more than an estimated 50k individual trunks, all connected to the same root system. there is no way to know, because each trunk only lives for 50-100 years, but scientists estimate it is also the oldest living organism, at somewhere between 10k-15k years old, which would make it not only older than the pyramids, but also alive at the same time as wooly mammoths, sabretooth tigers, giant ground sloths and many other now extinct species from both north America that likely walked through it, and from all over the world as well.

[Ekilibrion]

The face Hank makes at 3:46 😭😭😭"It's like a tree that eats trees"

[Dylan-vdrz]

Trees, crabs, moles. These are the shapes we should've been learning as children!!!

[Codexionyx]

I remember visiting Hawai'i and getting to see rainbow eucalyptus trees in person. They're even more stunning than in pictures.

[bl]

I had no idea dragon's blood was endangered, which makes sense since I'm seeing it used everywhere. This definitely opened my eyes and now I want to educate others to try and save that wonderful plant. Thanks, Hank.

[vpolite]

I am surprised he didn't talk about Giant Sequoias. The tops of some of them are so large that they have "top soil". They actually have other species of trees growing out of this soil.

[frikativos]

Here in the Canary Islands we have a relative of the Socotri dragon tree (dracaena cinnabari). Ours is called "drago" (dracaena draco), and it also bleeds.

[Metalkatt]

Hank *spooky voice*: Blood coloured sap!

Me: Ooh, I hope that's Dragon's Blood. It smells soooo good.

[festerallday]

I am an arborist in Hawaii and we have all of these trees. jaboticaba taste like a grape and a plum. Banyan are regularly one acre in size out here

[entropic-decay]

Dragon's Blood tree resin has also been used for varnish specifically for wooden musical instruments, such as violins.