Field of Science

Tree Tunnels

Tree tunnels can be pretty spectacular.  Lots of cities used to have American elm tree tunnels lining residential streets.  And in the tropics, rain forest vegetation often makes tunnels out of trails by closing in over your head, and this can be pretty exciting at night when bats use these tunnels as flyways.  Of course, ornamental tunnels are amazing sites too.  One of TPPs favorites is a tunnel of golden chain trees (Laburnum) as shown here.  A colleague started all of this with sending me the link to this pictorial of the 10 prettiest tree tunnels.  TPP has personally seen only one of the 10; guess which one.  Which one is your favorite?  Even our estate is too small for a tunnel, but TPP is thinking of a golden chain tree gate. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can get good tunnels forming along the old hollow ways of the UK, in various areas. Devonshire is well known for them.

Whilst not natural, they tend not to be planned, so have a rougher, wilder look. They are also harder to photograph like some in that collection.

http://stravaigerjohn.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/hayes-lane-walk-002.jpg

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/hollowway

Note the pictures of buildings in that collection will be because some places were named after hollow ways - Holloway in London being the most well known.

http://www.pontarddulaiswalkingclub.com/

(2/3 way down on right hand side)

Cheers,
Adam

The Phytophactor said...

Great stuff, Adam. Thanks. Some of those tunnels, especially the ones with the earthen banks on each side, are quite like the rain forest tunnels.

Anonymous said...

Those earthen bank ones are there thanks to many, many feet. To me, that's part of the beauty.

Cheers,
Adam

The Phytophactor said...

Definitely not the paths least traveled!

Anonymous said...

Thought you might like this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2013/may/23/1

Cheers,
Adam

Anonymous said...

Here's some Northern Ireland ones:

http://www.deviantart.com/art/Light-at-the-end-404716538

There's more images in their gallery, under "Forests and Fields".

Adam