Forests from another planet!

Some forests on our planet turn out to be much more fabulous than those created by science fiction writers of all time. We offer you to walk along the magical paths of the most fantastic forests in the world.

1. Krivoy les, Poland

2. About these trees growing in the forest near the town of Grifino, it is only known that they were planted in the thirties of the last century.‎

3. Hypotheses about the origin of such an unusual shape of trunks vary — someone claims that they were intentionally deformed in order to make ships from convenient wood, and some believe that during the Second World War tanks drove through the barely formed seedlings, whose tracks were not broken, but crushed them forever.

4. Baobab Alley, Madagascar

5. A cluster of mighty baobabs along a dirt road in the city of Menabe is the main contender for the title of the main natural attraction of Madagascar. These 800-year-old giants are able to store up to 117 liters of water in their trunks, the volumes of which determine their peculiar "swollen" shape.

6. Once upon a time, a lush forest lived in this place with a stormy plant life, leaving only a small alley of its majestic heirs.

7. Sunken forest, Kazakhstan

8. In 1911, a strong earthquake occurred in Kazakhstan, which led to a landslide. As a result, a natural dam was created in one of the valleys and a new lake was formed — Kaindy.

9. The fir trees that were overwhelmed by the incoming water still stand in their places today — their dried-up tops create a strange, slightly sinister impression, and the lower parts of the trunks and roots remained practically intact, turning the lake into a fascinating underwater forest.

10. Dragon's Blood Forest, Socotra Island

11. The landscapes of Socotra Island are called the most alien species on Earth. Fabulous thickets of bizarre trees, such as dragon's blood with its flat crown, funny and plump cucumber trees and desert roses seem to prove that all vegetation in this amazing place near the coast of Yemen cannot develop in an ordinary, earthly way.‎

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13. Rainbow Eucalyptus Forest, Maui

14. One of the brightest and most impressive trees in the world — rainbow eucalyptus - can be found in various forests of the Northern hemisphere.

15. Depending on the season, its bark undergoes successive changes, exposing patches of incredibly juicy colors: green, burgundy, purple, blue, orange and, finally, brown. After completing the full cycle of such molting, the whole process begins anew.

16. Twisting Thickets, Saskatchewan

17. The trees from this grove in Canada seemed to freeze in the poses of a sophisticated dance. Science cannot yet say anything about the cause of such strange shapes of trunks, calling this phenomenon a "botanical mystery".

18. Among the locals, however, it is often possible to hear the opinion that representatives of extraterrestrial intelligence had a hand in creating this natural mystery.‎

19. Apricot Valley Yil, China

20. Every year, the sloping slopes of Xinjiang are covered with a lush foam of pinkish-white flowering apricot trees.

21. The appearance of flowers marks the beginning of the fruit harvest season, at the same time turning the surrounding landscape into an indescribable work of non-man-made art.‎

22. Jaboticaba Forest, Brazil

23. A cursory glance at the trees in this Brazilian forest gives the impression of a swarm of large beetles clinging to their trunks. Looking closer and closer, you can notice the ripe liquid sides of these juicy "beetles"…

24. The jabotikaba plant also bears the name "Brazilian grape tree", and the berries covering it are considered an excellent dish, suitable for food both raw and canned and even freshly squeezed.

25. Dancing forest on the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad

26. The forest thickets on the Curonian Spit in the Baltic Sea are called by locals "Drunken Forest", and this definition will seem very accurate if you look at the bent, almost knotted trunks of trees, as if they forgot the normal direction of their growth.

27. The most plausible explanation for such a phenomenon places the responsibility for the strange shape of vegetation on the strong winds often raging in these places, which can significantly affect the position of young trees in space.‎

28. Wollemi Forest, New South Wales

29. To the uninitiated, this New South Wales National Park may seem rather ordinary — it does not contain dancing or colored trees and the like, but there is something that makes this forest truly unique.

30. Only here has the rarest coniferous wollemia tree, previously considered extinct 30 million years ago, found ideal conditions for life.‎

31. Dead Lowland Forest, Namibia

32. The forest in Namibia is the dream of many photographers: the combination of reddish dunes, flat sun-baked earth and black lifeless trees creates a unique natural graphics, striking with its unnatural clarity at sunset.

33. About 900 years ago, "camel acacia" (Acacia erioloba) grew on this place, feeding on underground moisture. But very quickly all possible sources dried up, leaving only a dry landscape with dead plants that do not rot in the local climate and continue to stubbornly stand under the sun for centuries.‎

34. Monkey Puzzle Forest, Chile

35. The Chilean araucaria, called the "monkey puzzle" by the inhabitants of South and North America, can be imagined by imagining a hybrid of palm and pineapple. This unique plant is considered a living fossil and is diligently cultivated in southern Chile as an excellent source of strong wood and edible seeds.

36. But nevertheless, despite all efforts, the rare tree was threatened with extinction by 2013, as its number on the planet is rapidly decreasing.‎

37. Great Banyan, India

38. Can you imagine a forest in which more than three thousand trees have a single root at all? In fact, what can be mistaken for numerous trunks are in fact the massive aerial roots of one mighty plant - a 250-year-old banyan tree.

39. An even more discouraging fact is that the trunk of the tree itself was cut down in 1925, but the banyan tree continues to actively live and grow, now occupying an area of 4 hectares.‎

40. Shondong Cave Forest, Vietnam

41. On the border of Laos and Vietnam, there is the largest cave on the planet known to science. Untouched by man until 2009, inside it keeps a real underground forest of amazing beauty.

42. To get into it, you need to overcome a long and steep descent into the bowels of the cave.

43. Aokigakara Forest, Japan

44. The lush sea of vegetation, which is Aokigakara, is shrouded in extraordinary silence — the forest is absolutely uninhabited. Representatives of wild fauna for some reason avoid settling among these trees. But this is not the only feature that makes the atmosphere in the forest creepy — this place acquires an even more sinister mood if you know that it is extremely popular with suicides from all over Japan.

45. Every year, 50-150 lives are decisively cut short in Aokigakara, forcing the local government to regularly take care of clearing forest paths of numerous lifeless bodies.‎