Árbol del Tule
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El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for "the Tule Tree") is a very large tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately 13 km from the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. The tree is 43 m tall, has a circumference of 35.87 m, and has the largest trunk diameter of any tree in the world at 11.42 m. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum; Ahuehuete in Nahuatl).
The age of El Tule is unknown, with estimates ranging between 1200 and 3000 years. Local Zapotec legend holds that it was planted about 1400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of Ehecatl, the Aztec storm-god (Pakenham 2002); its position on a sacred site (later taken over by the Roman Catholic Church) would tend to support this.
The tree is nicknamed the "Tree of Life" for all the images of animals that are reputedly visible in the tree's gnarled trunk.
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 An "elephant" and "gorilla" visible in the trunk |
[edit] External links and references
- Pakenham, T. (2002). Remarkable trees of the world. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
- Our Beautiful World
- Tule Tree Pictures
