• What tree absorbed part of a broken statue and became a major religious site?
What kind of tree tries to MURDER another tree by strangling it to death?
From weird shapes to spooky stories, here are 15 of the creepiest trees ever.
15 – Poltergeist tree • The Outer Banks of North Carolina are
well known for shipwrecks because of dense fog, and trees like this.
• Slave ships, in particular, were some of those that tried, and failed, to navigate
the Outer Banks.
• But this might be one of the only trees that seems to actually DEPICT a shipwreck,
with roots that look eerily like people trying to swim for their lives.
14 – Medusa Tree • Maybe you don’t see Medusa, but there
is definitely something unsettling about this tree.
• Could be an alien, or Cthulu, or whatever you’re feeling.
• Whatever you think the tree looks like, it looks like it’s from a movie set, but
it’s actually from Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, and it will NOT stop staring
at you.
13 – Apple tree of terror • This apple tree in Montreal probably hasn’t
done anything to anyone.
• If anything, it looks like it’s great at producing apples.
And that’s great!
Apples are good for you!
• It’s just that it kind of looks like it’s going to coil around you and drag you
to oblivion. 12 – Watching you
• Okay, the Medusa tree was sort of casually watching you.
• This tree is NOT being subtle.
It looks like a snake eye staring straight at you.
It looks so clean and unusual, it’s possible that it was actually painted this way.
• But even if it was, it still looks… threatening.
11 – Grave Tree • There’s creepy trees, and creepy graveyards.
But this thing seems to have both categories locked down.
• The thing about trees is that once they’ve decided to grow somewhere, there isn’t much
that can stop them.
They’ll just absorb anything in their way.
• But you kind of have to wonder about what happened to the body of the person buried
here.
10 – Buddha Tree • A deeply sacred site in Thailand is, oddly
enough, the site of a major military defeat.
• The invading Burmese army attacked and nearly destroyed the town of Ayutthaya hundreds
of years ago.
• They removed or destroyed most of the Buddha statues there, but left this severed
head for some reason.
• Over time, this banyan tree grew its roots around it, and now it is a historical and
religious landmark.
9 – Bendy Juniper • This juniper tree has been shaped by strong
mountain winds to the point where it’s bent completely sideways.
• Yet it’s still very much alive… even though it looks like a zombie trying to strangle
another zombie. 8 – Screaming Tree
• This hollowed-out tree in a New York State Park is often known as the “Screaming Tree,”
but it’s really just a matter of perspective.
• I mean, it could just as easily be yawning, right?
• Or preparing to swallow you whole?
7 – The “Strangler Fig” • There’s more going on here than meets
the eye.
It just looks like a big tree that grew out of an ancient monastery in the Cambodian jungle,
right?
• That’s kinda creepy, but what you don’t know is that there are actually two trees
there – the original tree that grew in that spot, and the “strangler fig.”
• The “strangler fig” doesn’t grow from the ground up.
It starts growing from the top of a tree, growing its roots down and choking out the
original tree.
So what you’re looking at here is basically the site of a slow, parasitic tree murder.
6 – Smiley Stump • It’s kinda sad that this tree is so
creepy, because it kind of looks like it just wants to be friends with you.
• It’s like some kind of monstrous deformity that you’d scream and run away from, but
it only wants a hug.
• But you can’t hug it because it doesn’t have arms and also it’s made of flesh-eating
slime.
It’s probably that kind of face.
5 – The lost dog • This “grass tree” is real, but it’s
also dead.
• The tree sits at Brisbane Ranges National Park near Victoria, Australia, and it really
just looks like it needs a haircut.
• Some people might say it looks like a poodle, but they’re clearly insane.
It’s OBVIOUSLY a Yorkshire Terrier. 4 – Rock-Eating Tree
• There’s a couple of different ways to view this.
You could see it as a tree trying to swallow a rock.
• Or you could see it as a tree GIVING BIRTH to a rock.
• Either way, it’s more than a bit unsettling.
And this isn’t even the only tree like this.
Trees grow with their roots enveloping giant rocks all the time… and it’s basically
ALWAYS unsettling. 3 – Fig on an Iron Fence
• It might not be a “Strangler Fig,” because it doesn’t seem to be choking the
life out of another tree.
• But it IS a fig tree, and if that wrought iron fence was another tree, it sure would
be trying to kill it.
• Perhaps the creepiest thing is that you can see it has just absorbed one of those
pointy spikes like it was nothing, and just kept growing.
2 – Cemetary Guardian • This tree is a little weird looking, but
it might not be all that scary on its own.
• Except that it just so happens to be sitting at Saint Aubin's Cemetary in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Now, a weird-looking tree at a cemetary, SHAPED LIKE A CROSS?
• That’s a bit much.
1 – The Root Pattern • What happens when a tree grows in a place
it wasn’t meant for?
• It finds a way.
And that way is really unsettling to look at.
It’s basically just a two-dimensional root pattern that plays out on top of the bricks.
• But just think – a three-dimensional version of that exists, out of your sight,
beneath every tree you ever see.
• It’s like you’re surrounded by wooden tentacles all the time, right below your feet.