[HN Gopher] 300-year-old Polish beech voted Tree of the Year
___________________________________________________________________
300-year-old Polish beech voted Tree of the Year
Author : n1b0m
Score : 195 points
Date : 2025-03-19 20:37 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.co.uk)
| randerson wrote:
| "... for it's fourth consecutive time".
|
| Given the rate at which trees grow, perhaps they should change
| this to tree of the decade?
| NullHypothesist wrote:
| lol. This is a really lovely contest, but with the near-glacial
| pace of tree growth, I'd hope they'd mix up the criteria just
| enough every year to keep it interesting to us fast-moving
| humans.
| crazygringo wrote:
| Seriously, "tree of the year" is conceptually nonsensical.
|
| Unless, once a tree wins, it's disqualified for the next half-
| century?
|
| But then you're basically making a ranked list of the top 50
| trees and then approximately repeating it.
|
| I dunno. Maybe restrict it to one of thirty or forty
| subcategories of trees each year?
| haugf wrote:
| this is a good take, i think we should just let it be the
| tree of the year every year that it earns it though.
| vasco wrote:
| We could find better looking trees every year. We don't
| currently have pictures of every single tree on earth to
| judge like that.
| calrain wrote:
| That Scottish tree is amazing
| Aromasin wrote:
| I've visited it in person, and it's utterly bizarre. You emerge
| from a monoculture pine forest (you can see the straight trees
| in the background of the photo) into a glade with the most
| amazing mix of ferns and moss that aren't found anywhere else
| in the forest. It made me really emotional to be honest.
| Scotland is beautiful in its own way, but to be frank it's
| mostly farmed woodland or shep pasture now. The true wilderness
| is few and far between, so seeing something that old with so
| much _life_ bubbling around it, so then merge into a barren
| pine farm, made me deeply upset.
| jmclnx wrote:
| Too bad the US did not have this contest, but that would mean it
| would have to care for the environment. Maybe Canada and Mexico
| can get together to have NA Contest.
|
| All the pics were beautiful.
| wbl wrote:
| The problem is California would win it. Not our fault the most
| beautiful trees in the world call this home.
| cmrdporcupine wrote:
| California has extremely tall softwood trees. But that's not
| the the sum of beauty in trees.
|
| I'm partial to the eastern half of the continent. Very high
| diversity of amazing hardwoods. I've never been to Texas, but
| the pictures I've seen of Post Oaks look amazing. Tulip trees
| (Liriodendron tulipifera) are stunning, across the whole
| region. An oak beech maple forest turning red in the
| temperate autumn is awe inspiring.
|
| Man I like trees.
| hackingonempty wrote:
| Go to Houston on a nice day and have a burger at Beck's
| Prime underneath a pair of 400 year old oaks. I haven't
| lived there in 30 years but its still one of my favorite
| things to do when I visit.
|
| This blog post has some good pics.
| https://www.penick.net/digging/?p=83517
| nukem222 wrote:
| Redwoods are impressive, but I'm not exactly sure a trunk
| passing out of the photo is the peak of tree aesthetics. I'd
| imagine the northeast or the northwest or parts of the south
| have the strongest claims.
| lithocarpus wrote:
| California has many extraordinarily beautiful large trees
| besides redwoods. Madrone, bay laurel, and tanoak come to
| mind.
|
| Still, I find something exquisite in the eastern hardwoods,
| beech in particular. The turning of color and dropping all
| the leaves is really gorgeous.
| jaredhallen wrote:
| Yep. And Juniper, too. And Sequoia, which I don't believe
| are technically redwoods if we want to split hairs. And a
| bunch of cool oaks.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| It took me a longer time than I care to admit that it's
| pronounced "tan-oak" and not "tan-o-ak"
| Fricken wrote:
| California is also home to the oldest known tree,
| Methuselah, a bristlecone pine.
| s0rce wrote:
| This is my vote, except I don't know which one it is.
| graemep wrote:
| An NA contest would be a nearer match to this - this is a
| European contest, not any one country or the EU.
|
| Is the US had its own contest they would probably call it the
| "world tree contest".
| pneumic wrote:
| The genteel American Beech is currently threatened by disease.
| Where I live in New England is covered in beeches, and starting
| last year I have not seen a single one that doesn't show symptoms
| of infection: https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/delivering-
| mission/sustain...
| lithocarpus wrote:
| It's really sad. They are some of the most beautiful trees in
| my subjective opinion - I love the way their roots branch out a
| bit above the ground.
|
| I went to see the largest / one of the oldest beeches a couple
| years back and it had died presumably of this disease. I
| visited another old growth forest in Pennsylvania too and all
| the old growth beeches there were dead. In fact, in that
| forest, though it had never been logged the only large old
| growth trees I could find more than one or two of, were
| hemlocks. The chestnut, elm, ash, and now beech all having been
| taken by newly introduced diseases.
| octopoc wrote:
| It's the hidden cost of global trade. Hopefully reducing
| foreign trade can forestall further extinctions.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| Interesting, do you mean you hope for more tariffs and
| trade restrictions? I've never considered ecology might be
| impacted by those kinds of tools
| lithocarpus wrote:
| Probably true to some extent. Though I imagine even if
| trade were cut in half most of the tree diseases would
| still get around. The likelihood of a pathogen to get
| around is not linearly proportional to the volume of trade.
| 7952 wrote:
| I wonder if this is an inescapable consequence of
| globalisation. It just plays out slowly.
| whyenot wrote:
| I think, unfortunately, you are right, it's just that it's
| playing out slowly enough that it's hard for us to see.
| Over time, natural selection will work its magic and the
| trees within the species that are more resistant to the
| disease will reproduce and the genes for resistance will
| spread throughout the population. The unfortunate thing is
| that this is not something that happens in a human
| lifetime, or even many human lifetimes, and it's not going
| to save individual trees living right now.
|
| Plants don't have an immune system, at least the way we
| normal think of one. As far as we know, there isn't a way
| to "vaccinate" them against diseases. Maybe that will
| change with molecular techniques, but not today.
| dyauspitr wrote:
| All native North American tree species are dying. Chestnut is
| gone, Ash will be gone in the next 10 years, Beech is next.
| mykowebhn wrote:
| Echoing the sentiments and information here. In California,
| there's Sudden Oak Death which is killing several native oak
| species. However, the tree which is most impacted by SOD seems
| to be the Tanoak, which is not a true oak, but which is a
| beautiful tree and is crucial to several ecosystems. Several
| species of fungi are associated with Tanoak, for example. Very
| sad.
| FergusArgyll wrote:
| And the American Elm, a beautiful very American-looking tree.
| Almost completely wiped out
| psd1 wrote:
| The elm trees are gone from Britain. I grew up without them.
|
| I'm looking for land to buy. I won't see my trees reach
| maturity, but hopefully I can get them established.
| uwagar wrote:
| hope some vandals now dont chop it!
| rvba wrote:
| Sadly when a tree becomes famous there are always some assholes
| who will destroy it.
|
| Just like that sycamore gap tree:
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycamore_Gap_tree
| uwagar wrote:
| this is what prompted me to post.
| s0rce wrote:
| Or drive drunk and crash into it,
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9 in
| the middle of immense empty desert.
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| There was apparently quite a big social media campaign for voting
| for these trees, with some notable grumpiness from Spain that
| Poland keeps winning.
| surfingdino wrote:
| Spain has a lot more winning beaches so it cancels out.
| scyzoryk_xyz wrote:
| ,,survivors" ,,witnesses of history" ,,testament to tradition"
|
| I do wonder if the trees share in a mutual understanding of all
| these human metaphors and language.
| panxyh wrote:
| They don't. But some humans do.
| rwmj wrote:
| Obviously not, but also trees don't hold tree of the year
| competitions for themselves. This is a human competition for
| humans.
|
| I was quite moved when I saw and touched the trees that had
| survived the Hiroshima bombing. (More so actually than the
| buildings or other memorials.) They're a real, living
| connection to history.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibakujumoku
| scyzoryk_xyz wrote:
| I was poking a bit of fun at this language but I wouldn't
| discredit the deeper emotions that trees evoke in humans.
|
| There is something whimsical about having such competitions.
| vkou wrote:
| Given that both the winner and the runner-ups are all in Europe.
| I suppose that other continents just don't have any trees of
| note.
| omega3 wrote:
| I suppose trees outside of Europe aren't taken into
| consideration for the European Tree of the Year award.
| rsynnott wrote:
| And possibly Australia, based on the precedent set by
| Eurovision.
|
| EDIT:
|
| > Taking second place is the majestic Portuguese Moreton Bay
| Fig.
|
| > This tree was planted in the 19th Century in Coimbra's
| romantic Quinta das Lagrimas Gardens from seeds exchanged
| with Sydney's Botanical Garden and is a treasured landmark.
|
| AHA!
| martin293 wrote:
| Me when all the candidates for European Tree of the Year are
| from Europe
| timeon wrote:
| Can you elaborate?
| hsshhshshjk wrote:
| https://www.treeoftheyear.org/vote
|
| Here's where the BBC got their information from. Let's give them
| the traffic :)
| graemep wrote:
| Not my views. It does not work without JS, the BBC does.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| I gave them my traffic and they wanted to verify I'm a human
| fabrixxm wrote:
| No. 1 The Beech.
| emacdona wrote:
| Loved the article. Texted it to my family group chat. My wife
| told me she had to close it immediately because the ads were so
| bad.
|
| I checked it in a browser without an ad blocker. TWO overlay (one
| after the other) that covered the entire content of the page.
| Then ads, ads, and more ads in the content.
|
| I get that the BBC needs to make money to produce content. But
| what good does it do for an advertiser to have ads be so annoying
| that people without ad blockers are just closing the page? What
| good does it to for an advertiser to be one of ten different
| brands being advertised on the same page?
| bbarnett wrote:
| I wonder if the "ads person" doesn't dogfood, and just goes by
| numbers.
|
| Everyone is using adblockers, and now people are just closing
| the page, but at each reduction in revenue and click through
| stats more ads are added.
|
| Eventually it's ads all the way down, and bots are all that's
| clicking, but as there are 1737733 ads on the page, one bot
| makes up for endless visitors, click through stats look good on
| a graph, done.
| MortyWaves wrote:
| What ads?
| r0fl wrote:
| I'm surprised Google doesn't penalize pages such spammy ad
| pages.
|
| These ads are worse than most spammy thin content ai blogs
| rsynnott wrote:
| > The Heart of the Dalkowskie Hills, a breathtaking 300-year-old
| beech, has won Poland the European Tree of the Year award for the
| fourth consecutive time.
|
| Hardly seems fair; what chance do any of the other trees have?
| Like, if it's Best Tree now, it will probably continue to be.
|
| EDIT: Oh, apparently it was _different_ Polish trees! Last year
| was a different Polish tree, also a beech. So that seems fair
| enough.
| s0rce wrote:
| We should start The America's tree of the year. I nominate a
| bristlecone pine and a monkey puzzle tree.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I bet a lot of money on that Latvian oak tree, looks like I'm
| going to have to tighten up the old belt for a few months. I
| thought it was a sure thing!
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-03-23 23:01 UTC)