nature

What is the smallest tree in the world?

Table of contents:

What is the smallest tree in the world?
What is the smallest tree in the world?

Video: Meet the World's Tiniest Trees! | From Plant to Planet with Nellie Nilsen | BBC Earth 2024, July

Video: Meet the World's Tiniest Trees! | From Plant to Planet with Nellie Nilsen | BBC Earth 2024, July
Anonim

In nature, there are many records associated with trees. For example, in the Redwood National Park (USA, California), the tallest tree on the planet grows - 114-meter sequoia. The thickest tree on earth is Mexican cypress, which grows in the city of Santa Maria (Mexico, Oaxaca). The diameter of its trunk is 42 meters! And in the west of Sweden, an ancient spruce grows, whose age has exceeded 9, 500 years.

What is the smallest tree in the world? A photo, name and description of this plant are in the article.

Amazing plant

Image

Dwarf willow (scientifically Salix Herbacea) - this is the smallest tree in the world. On average, its height is only two centimeters. But "giant" dwarf willows were found as high as seven centimeters!

Outwardly, the trees look more like grass - on a thin, but elastic stem, several shiny green leaves of a rounded shape firmly hold on. Their diameter is one to two centimeters. Like all members of the willow family, Salix Herbacea has male and female earrings, with male yellow and red female.

In dwarf willow, the superficial root system multiplies in the active soil layer.

Where is growing. Role in nature

Image

The smallest tree in the world, the photo of which is in the article, grows in Greenland, Canada, on the northern slopes of the Appalachian mountains at an altitude of one and a half thousand meters above sea level. These are quite harsh regions, so a tiny plant hides in moss, rocks, soil, hiding from the strongest winds and cold. The trees grow very close to each other, cuddling the trunks and thus retaining heat.

Often, near Salix Herbacea, you will find polar, arctic and Magadan willows, which quite a bit overtook them in growth.

The smallest tree in the world plays a very important role in nature. In cold latitudes it is a food for many inhabitants of the north - insects, birds, deer. Its reserves practically do not run out, as the dwarf willow has the ability to perfectly and quickly recover from damage. Also in the "thickets" of this plant insects take shelter from the weather, and birds use the stems and leaves to build nests.