12 Amazing Facts About Trees – Did You Know?
This is the second post (first one here) in the Did You Know? series here on Listfied. The Did You Know? series is where you get to learn amazing facts about things. Subscribe to the Listfied RSS feed to get more!
Trees: beautiful, really essential parts of our lives. They supply the wood we use for our furniture, fires, pencils, matchsticks… Trees give us the oxygen we so dearly need to live. Trees can bring the even most barren/desolate of places to life, and their fruit can quench the thirst of the tired traveller. There’s lots more to trees 
So I thought, why not write a post to appreciate these works of nature? The following are 12 amazing facts about trees, which can perhaps help us appreciate the value of trees. Enjoy 
Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.
1. Trees get about 90% of their nutrition from the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, etc), and only about 10% from the soil.
2. The averaged size tree can provide enough wood to make 170,000 pencils.
3. One (a single) tree produces up to 260 pounds of oxygen a year. That is more than enough to supply oxygen to a family of four people. Make that a few thousand trees, and you’ve got an oxygen supply for a whole town!
4. A tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces, driven over 8 500 miles. Line the highways with trees!
5. Trees planted in and around property can raise that piece of land’s value by up to 20%. That’s a lot!
6. An acre of trees can produce up to 4000 pounds (~1 814.4 kilograms) of wood every year. That’s over a ton of wood a year!
7. Trees help cool down the atmosphere. They can bring down your air conditioning costs by up to 20 percent.
8. A healthy birch tree can produce up to 1 million seeds a year
Record Setting Trees
1. The world’s tallest tree is a Sequoia (or California Redwood) in California; it is more than 360 feet tall.
2. The world’s oldest living tree is thought to be in Sweden. Its root system has been growing for 9,550 years. Now that’s old!
Trees With Historical Significance
Trees can live for thousands of years. They therefore witness important and historical events throughout history. And so, naturally, there are some trees today that are considered important from a historical perspective:
1. The L’Arbre du Ténéré (pictured above) was considered to be the most isolated tree in the world (the only one within more than 200 kilometres). What a lonely tree… sadly, it was struck by a vehicle, and was destroyed.
2. The Tree of Hippocrates is located in Kos, Greece. According to legend, Hippocrates taught his pupils the art of medicine under this tree.
Sources
These sites have a lot more amazing tree facts:
10 Facts About Trees and How Trees Help Save the Environment
Do You Tree?
Do you have fun tree facts that you’d like to share with us? Please do so
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Nice facts, knew only three…..
120,000 pencils….Whoaaaa!!!
I want a website too you know. =(
You prodigy… you. E> Loved the facts.
how sweet aaf you
It seems weird to have such specific facts when the specific type of tree is not mentioned. There is quite the variation depending on the species. What the heck is an “average tree” anyway?
It angers me that people like to point out benefits of trees and then they want to go out and plant slash pine to make everything all better. Its like saying that animals are good for the environment and then releasing a bunch of pigeons or lions into a place that was never meant to have them. We need to stick with specific trees and effectively maintain forests…not just plant more trees. Invasive trees (i.e. not native) are almost as bad as no trees if you ask me.
Hey Will, thanks for dropping by
you’re right, we need to be more specific, instead of just babbling on generally..
any specific tree types (that we should plant) you have in mind?
when i used to do Rx fire with TNC, I learned most of the southeast used to be covered in long-leaf pine with lower, wetter areas having loblolly pine and palmetto shrub/ tree. as for the rest of the country, i dont know.
I am an engineer and earth scientist…not an arborist. I deal with energy equations, dirt, and rocks. Burning invasive trees to support natives was just a hobby.