00:00The largest tree in the world is so gigantic that it was named General Sherman.
00:06It stands proudly in the National Park of California sequoias.
00:10Its branches extend to 84 meters in the sky.
00:14It is almost as high as the Statue of Liberty.
00:17As for its weight, if we could put it on a scale,
00:20we would need 400 elephants to balance it all.
00:24Its base extends to 11 meters in diameter,
00:27which would be enough to park two sedans end to end.
00:32California is the last place on Earth where these colossal trees grow naturally.
00:38During the Ice Age, they flourished in North America as well as in Europe,
00:42but as the glaciers receded, the sequoias gradually disappeared.
00:48Today, they thrive only along the western side of the Sierra Nevada Massif
00:54and rely on the melting of the ice caps to quench their thirst.
00:58General Sherman attracts thousands of visitors every day
01:02and the infrastructure of the park is designed to respond to this influx.
01:06There is only a short 8-centimeter walk from the nearest parking lot to access this green giant.
01:13On the way, a stone gate illustrates the shape and size of the base of the tree
01:18to give visitors an idea of its immensity.
01:22It is estimated that this famous sequoia would be between 2300 and 2700 years old
01:28and would have witnessed centuries after centuries of upheaval.
01:32It sprouted during the early days of the Roman Empire.
01:35When the settlers arrived in California at the end of the 9th century,
01:39they first tried to exploit these sequoias, thinking that their wood was precious.
01:44However, the colossal effort required to defeat these giants was almost inconceivable for the time.
01:51They also quickly discovered that this type of wood was more fragile than expected
01:55and therefore preferred to spare these trees.
01:58As for its name, the sequoia owes it to General William T. Sherman,
02:02a famous American military man of the 9th century.
02:05Not far from General Sherman is the second largest tree in the world,
02:10named General Grant.
02:12Discovered years before General Sherman received his name,
02:15this tree had to face its share of challenges, starting with fires.
02:19But like its counterpart, it survived,
02:22mainly thanks to its thick bark and its resistant heartwood.
02:28As for the oldest tree,
02:30we have known for a long time that it is a pinbristlecone from the Great Basin of the United States,
02:35named Methuselahem.
02:36It is also found in California.
02:38It has been there for more than 4,800 years,
02:41long before the Egyptians built the Pyramids of Gizesh.
02:45The exact location of this tree is kept secret to preserve it from all damage.
02:50Methuselahem and its congeners grow in California,
02:53Nevada and Utah, where it is difficult to survive.
02:56The region is cold, the soil is dry and the winds are fierce.
03:01But these robust pine trees have found a way to thrive
03:04by extracting their nutrients from the hard and rocky soil of the mountains.
03:08Their branches become knotty and twisted
03:11because of the winds blowing from all sides as they reach maturity.
03:16This makes them look a little disheveled,
03:18but it is an additional protection measure for these trees during powerful storms.
03:23Their roots feed only the branches that are just above them.
03:28Thus, if a part of the roots is torn,
03:31only this part of the tree will be affected.
03:36However, there is a new claim for the oldest tree.
03:40In Chile, there is a cypress from Patagonia called Granabuelo,
03:44which means great-grandfather in Spanish.
03:47It could be even older than Methuselahem, about 500 years old.
03:51This would mean that this tree has seen people walking around since the Bronze Age.
03:56To determine the age of a tree,
03:58we generally have to look inside and count the cerns.
04:02For Granabuelo, however,
04:04scientists have used complex calculations to estimate its age.
04:08All experts are not yet convinced by this method.
04:12No matter how old the tree is,
04:14Methuselahem and Granabuelo have seen many changes in their long existence.
04:20Each cern of their trunk contains information about the weather of the year it appeared.
04:26Researchers can learn a lot about our planet's past climate by studying these ancient trees.
04:35The largest tree in the world is also forbidden to visitors,
04:39but it is a recent security measure.
04:42Its name is Hyperion,
04:44and it is located in the Redwood National Park in California.
04:48Reaching a height of 116 meters,
04:51it is a coastal sequoia,
04:53larger than the length of a football field.
04:56Named after a titan of Greek mythology,
04:58Hyperion was discovered in 2006 by two researchers.
05:02The park houses other incredibly tall trees,
05:05like Elios and Icarus,
05:07both reaching heights of more than 110 meters.
05:11The impressive height of the northern California sequoias
05:14is due to their foliage and the climate of the region.
05:17These trees absorb and retain the humidity of the morning fog,
05:22and their seeds promote recovery after an injury,
05:25allowing them to live for a very long time.
05:28However, their shallow roots make them vulnerable to damage caused by hikers.
05:34Although they hold this record,
05:36the appearance of Hyperion may not seem up to all this media backlash.
05:41It is difficult to appreciate the dizzying size from the ground,
05:45and its trunk is not so impressive.
05:47Hyperion is currently sheltered in a closed section of the park without marked trails,
05:52but despite everything, many hikers have trampled on the surroundings over the years,
05:57damaging its habitat.
05:59Many waste has also been found by the past.
06:02The park recently published a statement exhorting visitors to avoid this tree,
06:08without which they could have to pay several hundred dollars in fines,
06:12or even find themselves behind bars.
06:17The tree of life stands, like a symbol of resilience,
06:21in the middle of the desert landscapes of Bahrain.
06:24Nestled at the highest point of the country,
06:26this ancient tree defies all probability,
06:29captivating visitors with its mysterious and inexplicable presence.
06:33It is surrounded by arid dunes, out of sight,
06:36in the middle of the Arabian desert.
06:38And, because it stands alone with the desert for any background canvas,
06:42it has disconcerted botanists for many years.
06:45There is little, if not no rain there.
06:48There is also no soft source of water nearby.
06:51Despite the lack of humidity, the tree of life thrives in green and against everything,
06:56exhibiting its greenish foliage.
06:58The way it manages to survive in such difficult conditions
07:02has led to some of the strangest theories.
07:05Some assume that the talus roots of the tree would sink very far into the ground,
07:10reaching depths of nearly 50 meters,
07:13in order to access the underground water reserves.
07:15Others suggest that the tree would adapt to its environment,
07:19by draining the humidity of the surrounding sand grains
07:22through adapted mechanisms.
07:24Another interesting theory is that the tree of life
07:27would be located on the site of the legendary Garden of Eden,
07:30and would draw its water from a mystical source.
07:33In addition to its scientific and cultural importance,
07:36the tree of life is a major tourist attraction in the region,
07:40attracting about 65,000 visitors each year.
07:43All this for a tree.
07:47Poland has its share of trees worthy of interest,
07:50all gathered in the Twisted Forest.
07:53It is a group of 400 trees that bend in a strange way.
07:57They all have a similar shape,
08:00bending abruptly towards the sky to form a J that almost touches the ground.
08:05Several theories face each other to explain the appearance of these trees.
08:08Some think that a strong snowstorm
08:11could have covered them when they were young and stupid,
08:14pushing them down.
08:15Others believe that the unusual gravity of the region
08:18could have affected their growth.
08:20An interesting hypothesis suggests that the people who planted these trees
08:24in the 1920s could have sought to bend them on purpose.
08:27These shapes would have been intended to accelerate the manufacture of furniture.
08:31So when the trees were about 10 years old,
08:34we would have interfered with their growth by making them adopt this strange shape.
08:39After the end of the ligature process,
08:42the trees would have remained in this strange position for the following decades.
08:47Anyway, what happened to one tree happened to all the others,
08:51because they are all arranged in the same way.
08:54Human intervention is therefore the most probable explanation.
08:57Even if all the trees in the Twisted Forest look alike,
09:00with their disturbing curvature,
09:02they always manage to stay strong and healthy.
09:05They adapted to these difficult conditions and,
09:08in one way or another,
09:10managed to continue to grow.
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