I spent several years trying to find out which tree, out all of the trees in the world, is the BEST tree. There are, of course, many ways to determine a tree’s relative bestness, and you can find many of them elsewhere on this site.
Of course, I could not do all the necessary work related to finding out trees’ relative bestness alone–the public was always able to take part in this project by voting on the Most Beautiful Tree in the World. However, I eventually took this project to a new level of interactivity and inclusiveness.
The Best Tree in the World: Center for the Collection and Promotion of All Wondrous and Odd Trees and Tree-Related Things functions as a storinghouse or museum of important tree-related information, images, and ideas. This Center acts as a depository for trees of exception, rarity, and wonder, opening up the world of tree-investigation to everyone.
The Center features links to prominent trees and tree-related websites, and may also include other pictures and newsworthy facts from other sources. If there any tree-related links you would like posted on the Best Tree in the World: Center for the Collection and Promotion of All Wondrous and Odd Trees and Tree-Related Things, please email them to me.
Things You Can Do with Trees
The Czech Tree of the Year contest
A guide to tree-climbing at Williams College, by Brent Yorgey, lists some great trees to climb
Christmas Spirit Foundation: trees for troops
Trees of Mystery: great name–a redwood trail
Trees for the Future: donate to plant trees
People Who Are into Trees
Trees, if you please: an unusual tree blog
The Whispering Crane Institute: a list of Trees We Do Not Like and a very weird picture
Stories About Trees
Blog discussion—the most interesting trees
Four interesting trees (and what their bark foretold), a humorous essay by Daniel Asa Rose
Tree Resources
The National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA community program–Carbondale, IL has been one for 26 years and Syracuse, NY has been one for 18 years
International Society of Arboriculture
Trees of Antiquity: Heirloom Fruit Trees (cool name)
Tree Classics: The “World’s Finest Artificial Christmas Trees” (great name for this product)
Tree People: “helping nature heal our cities,” based in LA
Photos of Interesting Trees
A great list of the “10 most magnificent trees in the world,” by “Alex”
A list of famous trees at Wikipedia
Lumberjocks: interesting trees from a lumberjack
And more interesting trees from Lumberjocks
Trees We Have Loved, by Sue Felleman
Photo.net: interesting trees again!
Flickr pictures tagged “trees”
Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever
Feral houses with trees growing in or on them, in Detroit
Amazing pictures of tree bark
Famous Trees
These two sites list some of the historic trees of Texas.
A list of “Exceptional” trees
The story of Herbie the Elm
Tree Facts
A List of Official State Trees
The National Register for Big Trees is the official list of the biggest tree of each species in the country
Here are two lists of Christmas tree facts.
Tree facts from Haliyali.
And more from SavATree
Books and Products about Trees
The Sibley Guide to Trees, by David Allen Sibley
Christmas Tree Lights, Etc. sells Christmas tree lights, and also has a variety of informational pages about how to buy and light trees.
Other Kinds of Trees
Bruce Schneier: Attack Trees (not as interesting as you would hope but interesting nonetheless!)
Trees: a program for drawing language structures
Chris Wildrick 