What are ancient trees?
Ancient trees are trees that makes you go ‘wow, it’s huge, fatter than any other tree like that round here’. It will be really fat, but probably not that tall, as trees like old people they shrink down with age.
They are living relics of incredible age that create in us feelings of awe and mystery and support wildlife that cannot live anywhere else. Over the centuries, they have inspired artists, writers, poets and scientists and are mentioned in sacred texts.
Some ancient trees are instantly recognisable, others are less obvious. Like people, trees grow and age at different rates depending on where they are and what happens to them during their lifetime.
The term ‘ancient tree’ encompasses:
- Trees of interest biologically, aesthetically or culturally because of their great age
- Trees in the ancient or third and final stage of their life
- Trees that are the old relative to others of the same species