As GreenAnswers continues to plant trees on behalf of our community, we thought it would be a good time to present some interesting and lesser known facts about these giant wonders of nature that we are working so hard to protect.

What impact can a single tree have on the environment?

Usually when people think about trees it is in large terms, like giant rainforests, thousands of acres of deforestation, and millions of tons of carbon. All the while, the power of a single tree can go unrecognized. For example, a single tree produces about 260 pounds of oxygen per year. That means one mature tree can supply enough oxygen annually to support the lives of two people. That same tree will also absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces driving 26,000 miles!

How many trees do Americans consume with print newspapers?

The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products, which amounts to about 2 billion trees per year! Producing the Sunday papers alone requires the felling of 500,000 trees. Throughout the year, about 250 million trees are cut to produce all of our print newspapers.

What are some famous trees?

Trees cover nearly thirty percent of the earth’s surface. Of those billions of trees, here are some that deserve some special attention:

The Glencoe Baobab in South Africa has a trunk with a circumference of 150 feet, and is also known as an "upside-down tree." Although these trees (pictured above) do not produce annual rings, carbon dating shows that some have lived for many thousands of years.

The Sri Maha Bodhi Tree grows from the ruins of the Buddhist Mahabodhi Temple, where it is believed the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, received enlightenment and stood before this very tree without moving for an entire week in gratitude for his transformation more than 2500 years ago.

The Chapel Oak Tree in Allouville-Bellefosse (northern France) was hollowed out by a lightning strike hundreds of years ago. In 1669, French architects turned the inside of this tree into a church with a spiral staircase and two distinct chapel rooms.

(Read more about the most interesting trees here.)

How do trees affect the climate?

While trees’ impact on the climate is usually discussed in the context of global warming, trees can also have a big impact on local climate. Due to water evaporating from their leaves, trees can measurably lower surrounding air temperatures. This process of cooling and transpiration can also induce local rainfall. To illustrate this, an acre of maple trees can put as much as 20,000 gallons of water into the air each day!

And of course, trees also act as global carbon sinks. The death of one 70-year old tree returns over three tons of carbon to the atmosphere!

What are some lesser known facts about trees?

• Trees are the longest living organisms on earth.

• Trees receive about 90% of their nutrition from the atmosphere and only 10% from the soil.

• Opposite to common belief, trees grow up from their tops, not their bottom. Therefore, a branch's location on a tree may only move up the trunk a few inches over its lifetime.

• Some trees can "talk" to each other. (Yes, like in Avatar!) For example, when willows are attacked by webworms and caterpillars, they emit a chemical that alerts nearby willows of the danger. The neighboring trees then respond by pumping more tannin into their leaves making it difficult for the insects to digest them.

• The average tree in a high density urban/city area has a life expectancy of only 8 years.

• The entire planet has only 61 trees for every person alive today.

What are the biggest, tallest, oldest and smallest trees in the world?

Biggest: the General Sherman Giant Sequoia in California, whose mass weighs more than 10 blue whales!

Tallest: a Coastal Redwood in California named Hyperion, measuring more than 360 feet tall.

Oldest: a 4844 year old Bristlecone Pine in eastern California named Methuselah.

Smallest: the Dwarf Willow reaches heights of only 5 cm when fully grown! (It should be noted that some people don’t consider the Dwarf Willow a tree, but instead a “woody shrub,” even though it belongs to the willow tree family.)

What are some interesting animals that inhabit trees?

In southwestern Morocco there is a tree called the Argan that produces a fruit that certain goats in the region find irresistible-- so irresistible, in fact, that those goats actually climb into the trees to get the fruit. And if that isn’t unbelievable enough, after the goats excrete the seeds from the Argan fruit, local farmers press and grind it into oil!

Possibly even more bizarre than goats in trees, is the mangrove killifish which spends a couple months of every year out of the water and living inside insect tracks carved into trees. The killifish takes up residence in rotting mangrove logs, where it temporarily changes its biological makeup so it can breathe air through its skin!

And that wraps up our look at the amazing world of trees. Despite their incredible history, trees are at more risk today from human activities than ever before. To learn more about this wonderful species and ways you can help protect them-- just ask!