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A bizarre , elephantine Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree with a pair of leg - like trunks bet like an Ent from " The Lord of the Rings " — and it has just been crowned New Zealand ’s Tree of the Year after saunter past the balance of the competition .
The strange tree , which has been nickname the " take the air tree diagram " because it looks like it ’s striding across a field , is a northerly rātā ( Metrosideros robusta ) — one of New Zealand ’s tallest flowering tree species that can know for up to 1,000 long time . It ’s roots and foresighted , limb - like branches make the tree diagram await like an Ent — a fictional race of tree - like brute that ward the forests of Middle - earth .
The “walking tree” is a northern rātā (Metrosideros robusta). It is more than 100 feet tall and at least 150 years old.
The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree digest alone in the centre of a bombastic paddock next to a graveyard near Karamea on the west coast of South Island . It is around 105 feet ( 32 metre ) grandiloquent — around the same altitude as a seven - story edifice , according toThe New Zealand Tree Register .
The walking tree was the light success of the 2024 edition of the New Zealand Arboricultural Association ’s ( NZ Arb ) Tree of the Year honor , walking away with 42 % of the public vote , which included five other finalist , according to a statement emailed to Live Science .
" It just stride out into the lead justly from the very start , " contender organizer Brad Cadwallader toldRadio New Zealand .
Northern rātā trees bloom bright red flowers between November and January.
The walking tree is an " exceptional feature of speech " and a " meridian case of the remarkable trees that we , as New Zealanders , are fortunate to experience , " NZ Arb president Richie Hill said in the statement .
Related : The sure-enough tree in the world ( and the 7 runner - ups )
It is unclear exactly how old the walking tree diagram is , but award organizers noted it is the lone subsister of a woodland that was discharge around 150 years ago . " The farming family back then clearly remember it was especial because they give it , " Cadwallader said .
Northern rātā trees bloom bright red flowers between November and January.
northerly rātā trees are aerophyte — a type of tree that starts life growing on the surface of a host tree before growing aerial ascendent that finally pass on the ground . The walk Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree belike start life high up in the canopy of its server , living off air and rainwater before reaching the ground . Its strange root layout was in all probability have by how it mature around its emcee tree , which belike go bad off C ago .
" That host tree has now gone , " Cadwallader said . " Maybe the tree was either very , very bountiful , or there may have been another tree that strike and lent against the host Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and that ’s why the roots have separate near the background and given it that walk show . "
Northern rātā trees are endemic to New Zealand and were once one of the most vernacular species in the country ’s forests . However , their compass has decreased over the last few decades and they are now list as nationally vulnerable , according to theNew Zealand Plant Conservation web .
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In add-on to deforestation , the main terror to northern rātā are the invasive common brushtail possums ( Trichosurus vulpecula ) , which destroy the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree by eat their leaves and erode at their etymon .
The trees are also threatened by cross with the intimately colligate pōhutukawa tree diagram ( Metrosideros excelsa ) and are susceptible to myrtle rust ( Austropuccinia psidii ) — a pathogenic fungi aboriginal to South America that was find in New Zealand for the first time in 2017 .
