List of individual trees

Appreciation of individual trees

• Many commenters describe strong emotional responses to the list, saying it highlights the “personality” of mature trees and how many remarkable ones exist beyond obvious superlatives.
• Personal anecdotes (e.g., visiting ancient bristlecones, campus trees, neighborhood meeting‑point trees) underscore how individual trees become local landmarks and emotional reference points.

Notable and notorious trees

• Specific trees draw attention: the Sycamore Gap tree (and outrage over its illegal felling), the Tree of Ténéré and The Senator (both destroyed by human carelessness), El Palo Alto, Major Oak, Pando, the “Last Ent of Affric,” the Hungry Tree, the Fuck Tree, and others.
• Some are celebrated for age or beauty; others for oddities (a tree growing around a bench or bicycle, a “gay cruising” tree, Douglas‑Adams‑like descriptions).
• Commenters note missing examples (e.g., Adyar banyan, Newton’s apple tree, Pippi Longstocking’s “soda pop tree”).

Loss, vandalism, and deforestation

• Several posts lament the destruction of ancient trees (sequoias, redwoods, Sycamore Gap, Ténéré, The Senator), treating it as a particularly irreversible form of human damage.
• One commenter links broader deforestation data, reflecting on how many potential “famous trees” are lost before they’re ever recorded.
• There’s debate over whether global tree numbers have decreased or improved under modern forestry practices.

Wikipedia’s role and editing dynamics

• The list is praised as an example of Wikipedia’s strength in collecting miscellaneous, culturally significant trivia that traditional encyclopedias would omit.
• The inclusion of explicit or humorous entries (e.g., the Fuck Tree) leads to discussion of Wikipedia’s “not censored” policy.
• Experiences with editing range from “anyone can edit” success stories to frustration about reverts, IP blocks, and a perception of oligarchic control; others defend the need for reverting low‑quality or controversial edits and using talk pages.

Definitions, categorization, and completeness

• A side thread debates why humans are missing from “lists of individual animals,” hinging on whether “animal” means “non‑human animals” in common usage.
• Commenters emphasize the tree list can never be comprehensive; official maps (Netherlands, England, university campuses) contrast with countless unnamed “trees of mild renown” that matter locally but never reach Wikipedia.