Methuselah a gnarled bristlecone pine from California between the Sierra Madre mountain range and Death Valley desert wasteland
But a tree named Alerce Milenario (Gran Abuelo, "Great Grandfather") was recently discovered in Chile, South America, that may be centuries older, according to tree experts attempting to date it
Coastal redwood Hyperionof California (over 370 feet) is the tallest tree in the world, discovered in 2006, next to other very tall trees.
The largest (not tallest, not widest, but overall biggest, assuming someone has compared it to those massive Tree of Life trees in Africa, the baobab) is General Sherman, who lives in California's Sequoia National Park
Today, August 25, the focus shifts from commercial deals to celebrating and supporting America’s natural wonders. Many parks, like Yellowstone, Yosemit, and Grand Canyon, often offer free admission on this special day [though everyone can get into national parks around the country free for the rest of the year due to a special dispensation that is not widely advertised if one were to look it up], encouraging visitors to experience their beauty firsthand. Organizations like the National Park Foundation and Friends of the National Parks groups host fundraising drives and volunteer events, often partnering with brands like REI and Patagonia for donation matching. Local businesses near park entrances may offer special discounts to park rangers and staff as a token of appreciation. More
The Arboretum sold out for everyone who failed to plan. It staggers entrance times, so while it was possible to get a ticket, one would miss most of the fair. The event was packed, the largest in years. Sun broke through the heavily chemtrail sprayed skies. Now the crisscross lines start with perfect X's, which would not happen in nature nor in ordinary flight paths overcrowded LA County. In any case, what was clear was soon covered over in an artificial and no doubt toxin mist. But the sun managed to break through at times. The Fair opened at 9:00 am, the Mushroom Hunt began at 10 with Olga from Smugtown, and it was followed by a fabulous Brando with a culinary demonstration that fed everyone -- hundreds of mushroom fans -- crowding the seating area. It was standing room only after a while, as the samples table was full of gawkers and vendors were hard at work keeping up with demand: medicinal tinctures, popular red-and-white mushroom hats (French berets), grow bags, dried delicacies, books, guide, posters, clothing, jewelry, and services. This is the only event that ever provided samples such as a choice of savory soup, sauteed morrells, black trumpets, or all three. There was a vegan food booth in the back with a line out the door. Then came the first speaker, Mycologist Else, talking about spores, which exists in the billions and trillions. "Spores are not seeds," she emphasized. Each needs a mate since one can create a small mat of tubule structures but must then meet with a partner spore to continue onto the mycelia phase. Mycelia is what keeps forest together, the Woodwide Web, breaking down matter and communicating between individual plants. (See Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running). A "mushroom" is the fruiting body of underground mycelia, what we see popping up from the ground or growing on trees. To study mushrooms and fungi soon becomes the study of trees and ecosystems. Our natural world would not be what it is without fungi.
Where, oh where, do the wild things grow? We're determined to find out!
On Sunday, February 15, 2026, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, we're trekking over to Arcadia in the San Gabriel Valley, next to Pasadena, to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
2:30-3:00 pm - Art and photo contest winners announced
3:00-4:00 pm - Feces, corpses, and the business of fungal decay talk by Sam Shoemaker
4:00 pm - Fair closes
TICKETS: Admission to the Wild Mushroom Fair is FREE with admission to The Arboretum. Tickets are available online. Act now because time slots may sell out as they have before. Check ticket availability here: Hours and Admission (The Arboretum).
Admission to The Arboretum: $18 for adults, $14 for seniors (62 and over), $14 for students with school ID, $8 for children (ages 3-12), and children 2 and under $0 (free). Arboretum members: free. Parking is free. More info about LAMS events is available at lamushrooms.org/events.
He massacred trees: White man arrested in Downtown L.A. chainsaw tree mystery
(KTLA 5) April 23, 2025: A man has been arrested in connection with dozens of city-owned trees in Los Angeles that were cut down with [an electric] chainsaw over the Easter Holiday weekend. The suspect, Samuel Groft, 45, was arrested [on eight counts of] felony vandalism. [His crimes may cost the city more than $300,000 dollars to repair, but will a spend a penny of that on buying seeds to plant many additional trees to install in our concrete jungle?] KTLA's Mary Beth McDade reports. Details: DTLA chainsaw tree massacre suspect in custody
Broadleaf. Evergreen. Conifer. How well do we really know our trees? Now we have a goal for National Arbor Day. Visit the arboretum.org in Los Angeles (by boat, not plane, like Greta Thunberg).
NOTE: National Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year based on their best tree planting times, which varies widely. For example:
What one madman did in LA, we can all undo by getting out and helping nature (arborday.org).
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Plant a tree, preferably one native and appropriate to the region.
May we suggest using an acorn to produce an oak? And avoid watering its stem, but rather water around it to encourage it to grow strong roots far and wide.
What better way to celebrate Arbor Day than to plant our very own tree? It's an incredible experience watching a tree grow over the years.
Why did the Buddha love trees so much?
One mark of goodness (Buddhist skillfulness, wholesomeness, unselfishness, selflessness, nongreed, letting go, generosity, loving-kindness, giving, dana, compassion, thoughtfulness) is "planting trees the shade of which we will never sit under" because they take so long to grow. Why should we be unselfish? One good reason might be to look around and realize that we have shade because of the kindness of others (Native Americans, land caretakers, and bhumma-devas or woodland fairies and angelic light beings) who came before us. That should be reason enough. But this reflection may also help: Just as we cannot harm others without simultaneously harming others, we cannot help others without simultaneously helping ourselves. It may not be obvious, but that's just the way it is by a natural regularity we can call karma, the law of receiving back in kind what we put out into the world, not only immediately but also after a long time.
It's an unbelievable feeling knowing that we made it happen. Don't print this article! Deforestation is a huge problem with many implications, and reducing our paper usage is the most immediate way to make a difference.
We can go a step further by seeking out brands with sustainable business practices (not just greenwashing by corporations and the PR firms they hire to sell sell sell), and by adopting strong composting and recycling habits.
Siddhartha awakened with the help of this Bo tree
EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's not just recycle the way they do in Hollywood. Let's precycle the way they have been doing in Berkeley for decades. What's that? It's considering where something is coming from, what waste it is producing by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Pre-cycling is thinking ahead of time, maybe even thinking out for seven generations like the Indigenous peoples of America, the Native American tribes, and the Buddha spoke of doing. The Buddha said that? When asked about benefiting the deceased by the "transfer of merit," the Buddha explained that we have relatives. And if we do something for one who is not in a place able to receive it, it will still benefit our other relations out for seven generations. It's an odd coincidence to mention seven if the two are not related, so either they both knew something or the Buddha's teaching reached the Americas just like American historians like Edward P. Vining (An Inglorious Columbus) and Rick Fields (How the Swans Came to the Lake) have documented happened centuries ago. How can we "transfer" good karma because isn't "karma" one's own doing? Yes, it is, but it can be transferred in this way, according to the Buddha. There are worlds one may be reborn into that provide little to no opportunity for doing good. If one has a deed done on his or her behalf AND one appreciates, approves, applauds, and rejoices on account of that, then that one so doing is producing lots of skillful (good, meritorious) mental karma. And that will be of benefit there in that place. Only some places allow for this transfer to take place, but the Buddha said that our "relatives" extend out for seven generations, and with so many beings involved, it is impossible that we would be without being in just such a place to receive our transferred karma. So it will not go to waste, and who knows? It may be that we find ourselves reborn in such a destination needing help and overflowing with gratitude (like the "grateful dead") when a relative does something good on our behalf.
Take a hike -- the good kind! Hiking is a great escape from the doldrums of everyday life, and it's an activity that's great for people across a wide age range.
Where better to do it than out in nature? "Forest bathing" is a practice of doing it in the buff or at least scantily clad to absorb the dappled sunshine and negative ions as the trees and green environment exhales after breathing in what we exhale. It's an opportune time to be mindful rather than worried all full of discursive thoughts.
Why We Love National Arbor Day
The Buddha, ready to pass away into final nirvana and make an end of all rebirth, walked faraway until he came to twin sal trees, reclined between them, and bid the simulation farewell.
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Natural beauty is one reason. With so much of our population living in big cities, it's easy to lose sight of nature's greatness and splendor. Sniff a frangipani. Inhale the sappy ooze of a pine. Behold a cherry blossom.
Our planet needs love. Despite some disagreement about whether or not global warming is real and the fault of irresponsible corporations and thoughtless consumerism, there's no debating that keeping our planet healthy helps to keep us healthy. We avoid polluting, so let's avoid over-consuming.
There's a lot to love about a holiday that helps make our planet a better place. There's a global movement with over 40 nations having their own version of Arbor Day. Therefore, it's safe to say that this holiday is worldwide.
We've got a lot to be thankful for when it comes to trees, so it's only natural that so many cultures have their own day to celebrate. Source: National Arbor Day
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MyOutdoorLife, April 19, 2025; KTLA 5 News, Los Angeles, April 23; 2025; NationalToday.com, April 25, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Long ago (26 centuries) a tree in a sense saved the world, not just this planet but this region of space and the many beings transiting through it, most of them devas ("shining ones") of different sorts.
Then Sujata saved the Bodhisattva with food.
That tree, let's call him Bo though who knows that it was male or female, both or neither, was born on the same day the Bodhisattva (future Buddha) came into the world from another world named Tusita. On that same day his future wife was born. Things were coming together for a miraculous realization. He must have been drawn to that fig-producing tree, now called the "sacred pipal" (Ficus religiosa). What shelter it offered him, what dryads (tree spirits) inhabited it, what terrestrial energies it brought up from Bhumi (Terra, Gaia, Earth) or down from the heavens (sagga), who can say?
Dryads are spirits in trees.
(Maybe the Buddha mentioned it, but we are not aware). It gave the Bodhisattva shelter, a center, energy (plenty of tiny figs with lots of calories free on the ground, a gift from the tree, to enjoy, which an Egyptian mummy in a pyramid in a dream told Edgar Cayce were "spiritual food" and which American researchers noted was chemically similar to LSD).
Though purists in the tradition say the Bodhisattva, living on his own in the forest by his own rules or those generally adhered to by independent wandering ascetics, was fasting all that time, and no one seems to know how long from the time the Bodhisattva left the lifesaving donor Sujata and her maid, who nursed him back to health from his previous extreme fasting.
Plants are too incredible: There's a tree that walks?! It's known as the "Walking Palm" (Socratea exorrhiza and Socratea exorrhiza) of Central and South America. Where is it going as it moves 20 feet per year?
With Bodhi trees everywhere in the world now, most of them directly related to that very tree, Bo, the oldest documented tree in the world, now living on the Buddhist and Hindu island of Sri Lanka, most Buddhists never seem to think to eat the fruit. It falls to the ground and is squashed underfoot during sacred circumambulations or disregarded. Asking Theravada Buddhist monks about it, they laughed off the question. A little research revealed that in India the sacred fig is regarded as a famine food so is not usually eaten, probably due to its small size. But what an idea -- Buddhist Fig Newtons with gluten free crust. They're delicious and easy to collect, more easily with a net to catch them as they fall before the ants find them.
India is amazing for its trees. At least three should be sacred to Buddhists, more sacred than all tree already are. They are the sacred fig, the sal tree (which helped the Buddha a great deal, first sheltering him until Sujata found him and gave him her dana or charity and the twin sals the Buddha chose for his final nirvana), and sandalwood which provides incense around the world and is nearly being brought to extinction because of its healing scent.
Everywhere in India there is a healing tree, the "village pharmacy" known as the neem tree (as valuable a medicine as the moringa or drumstick tree is nutritious). But even more valuable might be the incredible coconut tree, a source of food, fiber, fuel, oil, sugar, pure water, so valuable that in ancient times to cut one down was considered tantamount to killing a person.
Pongamia in Oahu, Hawaii, USA
Now amid all of this tree wealth comes another tree with incredible potential to replace petroleum. This ancient tree from the pea family is known as the pongamia tree (Millettia pinnata).
This tree is incredible for its potential as a biofuel, being 30% oil (in the bean it produces), and nutrient dense due to its high protein content (65% to 70% high quality protein). It is a plant-based oil and a food, a plant that restores oxygen to the environment as well as providing sustenance to bees, the soil, microorganisms like the mycorrhizae (fungi, mycelia) in the ground, and all the other benefit trees provide this world.
Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; MSN.com
(Domain of Science) This map of plants summarizes all of the different kinds of plants from algae (single cell chlorophyll-based plants) all the way through bryophytes, ferns [which reproduce through sperm], gymnosperms, angiosperms, monocots, eudicots, rosids, and asterids. It explains how they are related to each other due to their evolutionary history, and the features that make plants so successful, leaves, roots, a vascular system, spores, seeds, flowers, and fruits.
To get posters for North America, visit DFTBA Store.
For the rest of the world, go to RedBubble Store.
Posters available for personal or educational use: flickr.com...
Special thanks to the researchers and staff at Kew (kew.org) for their help:
Lydia Shellien-Walker
Ilia Leitch
William Baker
Eddie Johnston
Sharon Willoughby
Some Awesome People
Many thanks to my $10 supporters and above on Patreon, who are awesome. Join the gang and help support produce free and high-quality science content: domainofscience
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Writer, artist, animator, and editor Dominic Walliman, who uses Adobe Illustrator and After Effects for the graphics (for the many people who ask :)
Additional Footage
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- White Chamomiles Blossom In Summer Field. Beautiful White Chamomiles. Chamomile Stock Media provided by mishelvermishel / Pond5
Dominic Walliman, Domain of Science, YouTube, Dec. 31, 2023; Kelly Ani, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Don't expect this. Expect this (below). And if in Los Angeles, don't expect anything even smog-free
Is it Mercury retrograde time again? It might be. Communications are bound to be disrupted by high energy particles slamming into the planet and hitting so many of Elon Musks low-flying (possibly aloft by balloon) "satellites" hovering above in low earth orbit, far from space, just in our common sky, absorbing mass coronal ejections.
Northern lights visible across U.S., even reaching the Deep South, due to solar storm
(NBC News) May 11, 2024: Dazzling colors lit up the night sky over the United States as the aurora borealis was visible as far south as Florida and possibly even Hawaii. NBC News’ George Solis speaks with a planetarium director to learn more about what’s causing the spectacle in the sky. Subscribe to NBC News: nbcnews.#NorthernLights#AuroraBorealis#Weather
Solar storm brings northern lights south(5NEWS) May 11, 2024: Astophysicist Nour Rawafi says this is the biggest geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years.
Below, Buddhism is wild enough to believe that there are trees and flowers that grow on other planets or in other dimensions. Buddhist cosmology speaks of these worlds, these planes of rebirth, as existing above and below the platform of this world, one of countless others within "the human plane." Sometimes those extraterrestrial plants make it to this world where, at least in India, sages recognize that those plants aren't from around here. But first, science has made discovery:
In New Brunswick, Canada, researchers discovered fossils of a prehistoric tree from the Early Carboniferous period. Evidence of the alien-like tree was first unearthed in a quarry in 2017.
Over the years, four more fossils were found. The tree was named Sanfordiacaulis densifolia. One of the specimens was so well-preserved that scientists were able to construct a three-dimensional model of what the tree once looked like.
Sanfordiacaulis densifolia had a long, spindly, narrow trunk and a crown of leaves that may have measured 18 feet in diameter. Its branches likely extended outward to intertwine with nearby trees so it could stay upright.
It grew underneath a bunch of taller trees, so it had to stretch wider to receive sunlight. “When my co-authors and I began to reconstruct the tree based on the specimens collected in Sanford Quarry, the only analog we could think of was an oversized toilet or bottle brush,” Robert Gastaldo, the lead author of the study, said.
The researchers estimate that Sanfordiacaulis densifolia had more than 250 leaves. From the fossilized specimens they analyzed, they found that the leaves reached six feet long, but they most likely grew even longer.
Its appearance resembles a fern or palm tree, although the oldest tree fern fossil is younger, and palm trees wouldn’t show up in the fossil record for another 240 million years. More
There are other literal trees in space, for example, the massive trees on Mars, according to photographic evidence presented by the Enterprise Mission's Richard C. Hoagland. They are frequently spotted on NASA downloads but blurred out by NASA when discovered by amateurs
According to Buddhist sources, there are plants on other worlds near Earth (Bhumi). One sutra that makes this clear is an incidental mention of a flower that grows in space. By "space" is meant another world above the platform of the Earth, because Buddhist cosmology describes 31 "planes of existence," with most of those worlds above the human plane in space (akasha deva loka, "celestial worlds of the shining ones"). "The Last Days of the Buddha" sutra (Maha Parinibbana Sutta, DN 16) mentions a special flower that grows in a tangible, physical, sensual heavenly world:
SUTRA: Part 5: At Kusinara
Translated by Sister Vajira and Francis Story (DN 16), edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
It is curious that Siddhartha was born under a sal tree, was enlightened under a pipal fig tree (Ficus religiosa), and purposely came to his final rest between two sal trees. This can hardly be a coincidence because all buddhas, in this world as in other worlds that are part of the human plane, have their own "enlightenment trees."
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1. Then the Buddha said, "Come, Ananda, let us cross to the farther shore of the Hiraññavati and go to the Mallas' Sal Tree Grove, near the town of Kusinara [modern Kushinagar, India, near the border of Nepal]." - "So be it, venerable sir."
2. And the Buddha, together with a large company of wandering ascetics, went to the farther shore of the river Hiraññavati, to the Sal Tree Grove of the Malla people near Kusinara. There he spoke to Ven. Ananda.
3. "Ananda, please prepare for me a couch between the twin sal trees with the head pointing north. I am weary, Ananda, and wish to lie down" [41]. "So be it, venerable sir." And Ananda did as the Blessed One asked. Then the Buddha reclined on his right side, in the lion's pose, resting one foot on the other, and rested mindfully and with clear comprehension.
4. The twin sal trees spontaneously burst into full bloom even out of season. The blossoms rained down on the body of the Buddha, showering him with petals. And celestial mandarava flowers and heavenly sandalwood tree powder from the sky (space, akasha) rained down on the body of the Buddha, showering him. And the sound of heavenly voices and heavenly instruments made music in the air in reverence.
5. The Buddha said, "Ananda, these twin sal trees are in full bloom even though this is not the flowering season. And blossoms down on the body of the Tathagata [the Wayfarer, the Buddha] and drop and scatter and are strewn upon this body in reverence. And celestial coral tree flowers and heavenly sandalwood tree powder from the sky rain down on this body and drop and scatter and are strewn upon it in reverence. And the sound of heavenly voices and heavenly instruments fill the air with music out of reverence for the Tathagata.
6. "But, Ananda, it is not in this way that the Tathagata (the Buddha) is revered, respected, venerated, esteemed, and honored in the highest degree. Rather, Ananda, whatever male of female monastic, whatever layman or laywoman abides by the Dharma (Teaching), lives upright in the Dharma, walks in the way of the Dharma, it is by such a person that the Tathagata is revered, respected, venerated, esteemed, and honored in the highest degree. Therefore, Ananda, train yourselves: 'We shall abide by the Dharma, live upright in the Dharma, walk in the way of the Dharma.'"
The Grief of the Devas (Space Beings)
7. At that time Ven. Upavana was standing in front of the Buddha, fanning him. The Buddha rebuked him, saying: "Move aside, monk, rather than standing in front of me."
8. Ven. Ananda thought: "Ven. Upavana has attended on the Blessed One for a long time, closely associating with him and serving him. Yet now, right at the end, the Blessed One rebukes him. What could be the reason, the cause for the Blessed One to rebuke Ven. Upavana, 'Move aside, monk, rather than standing in front of me.'"
9-10. Ven. Ananda asked, and the Buddha answered, "Throughout this tenfold world-system, Ananda, there are hardly any of the devas (space beings) who have not gathered together to look at the Wayfarer. For a distance of 12 yojanas (approximately 84 miles) around the Sal Tree Grove of the Mallas in the vicinity of Kusinara there is not a spot that could be pricked with the tip of a hair that is not filled with powerful devas.
These devas, Ananda, are complaining: 'From afar have we come to look upon the Wayfarer. For rare in the world is the arising of wayfarers, arhats, fully enlightened ones. And this day, in the last watch of the night, the Wayfarer's final nirvana will come about. But this monk of great power has placed himself right in front of the Blessed One, concealing him, so that now, at the very end, we are prevented from looking upon him.' In this way, Ananda, the devas complain."
11. "Of what kind of devas (space beings), venerable sir, is the Blessed One aware?"
12-13. "There are devas, Ananda, in space and on earth, who are earthly-minded; with disheveled hair and uplifted arms they weep; flinging themselves to the ground, they roll from side to side, lamenting: 'Too soon has the Blessed One come to his final nirvana! Too soon has the Happy One come to his final nirvana! Too soon will the Eye of the World vanish from sight!'
14. "But those devas who are free from passion, mindful and clearly comprehending, reflect in this way: 'Impermanent are all compounded things, so how could this [the Buddha release] be otherwise?'" More
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