Ground yourself talking to this gentle giant and old soul, #arboldeltule #tuletree. The Big Tree of Tule in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, has a girth of 36.2 m and a height of 35.4 m, with a 43.9 m wide crown. It has for long been thought that the Tule tree might actually represent the fused trunks of several different individuals. However, study of DNA samples from the tree using random amplified polymorphic DNA indicates that it is in fact a single individual (Dorado et al. 1996). Finally, we observed that these giant Taxodium are not really trees because they do not have trunks. In every case they have extremely large root systems and comparably large live crowns, with essentially no trunk. They could be described as the world's largest shrubs. This is probably a consequence of their open-grown habit. In places where they grow in a stand that has appreciable crown closure, such as in a forest or along a stream, the trees can grow relatively tall with well defined trunks. Ethnobotany. This tree has one of the most remarkable uses recorded in the conifer literature: the Mexica or Aztec people, and perhaps others within its range, would plant it in palisades within shallow lakes such as the formerly extensive Lake Texcoco, and would fill the space between with earth. In this way, they used Taxodium to turn lakes into farmlands. The great city of the Mexica,Tenochtitlan, was in this way reclaimed from the waters of Texcoco (the story is recounted in interpretive displays at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City). The Chalma tree, pictured in the gallery above, is described as a "sacred tree" by Bautista (2005). The tree is said to be 2270 years old. Pilgrims to Chalma initiate their religious rites in the shade of this giant tree. It is the custom to dance at this tree, and many travelers wear a crown of flowers when they visit. Bautista (2005) also reports that the tree's bark is used as a diuretic, its leaves were used to cure scabies and to adorn altars, and its resin was used to treat ulcers, skin diseases, and toothache. (at El Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnNb2dUhoG1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=my4yy9b5lapc