Tree Pictures

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Tree pictures,

Trees are the kings of the plant world and tree pictures are some of the most beautiful in the photography world. Perennial by definition, trees have the longest lives of any plant, longer than many animals. For this reason, trees have always been part of humankind’s imagination, mysteries of nature. Tree pictures and imagery have existed in art and literature since humans learned to form their fingers around a pen or brush. The Bible’s first book, Genesis, opens on the first man and woman contemplating the Tree of Knowledge, and the Bible’s last book, Revelation, ends with humanity inhabiting a new world, in which grows the Tree of Life. Norse religion held that the entire universe hung in the branches of Yggdrasil, a giant ash. The Greeks believed in dryads, tree spirits. In India, tradition held that the mystical Tree of the Sun and Moon had oracular powers, speaking from the point of view of a man during the day and of a woman at night. Both Marco Polo and Alexander the Great sought out this tree when they arrived in India. The volume of tree pictures in contemporary photography attests to the lingering enchantment that the tree holds in our modern world.

The tree pictures featured on this site, provided by photographer, Bob Lilly, exhibit some of the most beautiful and magnificent trees in the United States. Tree pictures of the aspen reveal one of the most wide-ranging trees on earth. Aspens, in the same scientific family as poplars and willows, grow everywhere from Scandinavia to North Africa to China and Japan. The aspen is notorious for its appearance and sound. The name, which means quivering in French, is evident in the rustling sound caused by the friction of its leaves. Since the aspen has such a slender leaf stalk, it catches wind more easily than most trees, swaying even on seemingly still days. Our aspen tree pictures display the grace and beauty of this tree, famous since the Bronze Age of Greece and mentioned by Homer.

Of course, no tree picture collection is complete without images of the immense and ancient sequoia. Most populous in Sequoia National Park, some of these monsters are nearly three thousand years old and have grown as large as twenty-six stories high and wider than a city street. The sequoia tree picture provided by Bob Lilly shows the sequoia looming out of the mists in the forest, as mysterious as it is beautiful. Also a beautiful image, Texas Wildflowers and Mesquite shows one of the most populous trees in Texas surrounded by a field of colorful native flowers. With a diverse selection of tree pictures available, including aspens, sequoias, oaks, mesquite, and pecan, we surely have a tree picture for everyone.


James Webb©2005