Extraordinary Flora

Glendurgan Garden Maze

The twists and turns of this serpentine maze are over 170 years old.

In its earliest beginnings in the 1820s, Glendurgan Gardens was thoughtfully laid out to sustain its design for ages to come, and like most amazing landscapes, it took ages to arrive at its... »

Extraordinary Flora, Horticultural Marvels, Mazes | Edited by serflac, Rachel and others

Ancon Hill, República de Panamá

A pocket of jungle amidst urban expansion in Panama

You can tell a lot from looking at a map of Ancon Hill and the nearby areas. Surrounded on all sides by Panama City, Ancon Hill is a tiny pocket of jungle wilderness in a rapidly industrializing... »

Extraordinary Flora, Fascinating Fauna | Edited by JBHewlett and atimian

Pedro Martín Ureta's Forest Guitar

Guitar made of trees, dedicated to a man's lost love

Breaking up the flat agricultural areas of Argentina's Pampas is a guitar formed entirely out of trees. Stretching for 2/3 of a mile, the multi-colored instrument was created by one Argentine... »

Extraordinary Flora, Outsider Art | Edited by serflac, atimian and others

Welwitschia

Bizarre living fossil only grows in a small chunk of the Namib Desert

Stretching through Angola and Namibia on the southwest coast of Africa, the Namib Desert gets less than a half inch of rain per year. It's a completely barren landscape, deathly hot and mostly... »

Natural Wonders, Extraordinary Flora | Edited by atimian, Dylan and others

Valley of Square Trees

Right angles in the forests of Panama

Sitting on the second largest inhabited dormant volcano in the world, the Valley of Square Trees is a dangerous choice for a settlement. Nonetheless people have lived in the area for centuries,... »

Extraordinary Flora | Edited by atimian and Dylan

Sunland Baobab

South African bar inside a hollowed out 6000-year-old Baobab

Sunland Baobab in Limpopo, South Africa is a one stop shop for finishing off a bucket list. Physically, the giant tree boasts the top of many lists. It is one of the largest baobabs in South... »

Extraordinary Flora, Bizarre Restaurants and Bars | Edited by serflac and atimian

Lost Gardens of Heligan

400-year-old garden, restored to beauty

On a palatial estate in Cornwall, a massive and unique garden has been restored to its original beauty after 75 years of languishing unloved. Since the late 1500s, The Lost Gardens of Heligan... »

Extraordinary Flora, Outsider Art, Horticultural Marvels | Edited by serflac, atimian and others

Huautla de Jiménez

Southern Mexico under the influence of mushrooms, ceremony and celebrity

Before 1955, María Sabina was just a farmer. She lived off the land near Huautla de Jiménez and enjoyed a respectable standing among the community as a curandera, or healer. Within the blink of an... »

Extraordinary Flora, Rites and Rituals, Commercial Curiosities, Purveyors of Curiosities | Edited by serflac and atimian

Gryfino Forest

Abusive farmers may have stunted trees 80 years ago

Blending science fiction and ecological abnormality, a group of 400 trees in Poland are mysteriously bent. Hovering just inches above the ground, the trees amazingly, and dramatically, take a... »

Natural Wonders, Extraordinary Flora | Edited by serflac, atimian and others

Tree Surgeon Buried in a Tree

Local legend says that someone is buried in the trunk

At the entrance to the Hampton Springs Cemetery in Carthage, Arkansas, there is a tree. Now, there are lots of trees, in this cemetery and in many others - almost every other, probably. But this... »

Natural Wonders, Extraordinary Flora | Edited by Nicholas Jackson