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A rare breed of ancient trees appears to be the key to life for forests all over the world. Researchers at The Morton Arboretum say in many forests which date back centuries, there are a small number of trees which provide genetic and evolutionary benefits to the rest of the environment. Moreover, this “tree of life” is usually 10 to 20 times older than the average plant species dwelling in that forest! Study authors found that these ancient trees don’t follow a natural (and predictable) life cycle like other plants, trees, and even humans. They also only make up fewer...

September 21, 2009 The Ents Have Gone To War James Reynolds In the Tolkien mythologies, the Ents are a race of human-like trees living deep in a primordial forest. Ancient, towering creatures, Ents move slowly and deliberately, requiring decades of contemplation before coming to a decision on matters great and small. In the Middle Earth Trilogy, Ents are warned time and again of the danger they face at the hand of man, but it is not until they go to the edge of their forest and witness the destruction of their homeland that Ents rise up and defeat their foes....

Scores of people are flocking to a village in northern Malaysia to see a betel nut tree which has sprouted a human-like face, reports said Tuesday. Newspapers carried pictures of the green face on a frond of a seven-metre-high tree. The unexplained phenomenon has led villagers in Kampung Paya to dub it the "ghost tree," the News Straits Times reported. The Star newspaper's website showed a picture of a tree with a face-like feature reminiscent of a Pacific island ritual mask. Owner Miah Majid, 60, told the newspaper that she spotted the face last week and that it was the...

One of the many wondrous peoples that poured forth from the rich imagination of the late J. R. R. Tolkien were the Ents. These tree-like creatures, agonizingly slow and covered with mossy bark, nursed themselves on tales of past glory while their numbers dwindled in their isolation. Unable to reproduce themselves or to fathom the evil outside their peaceful forest — and careful to keep to themselves and avoid reacting to provocation of the tree-cutters and forest burners — they assumed they would be given a pass from the upheavals of Middle Earth. But with the sudden arrival of two...

Origin and History of the Ents including an Investigation of the Proposal that Ents are Maiar and their Relation to the Trolls by Lalaith andreas.moehn@wiesbaden.netsurf.de The HistoryThe Ages of The Trees"No one knew whence they (Ents) came or first appeared. The High Elves said that the Valar did not mention them in the 'Music'." (L248) Also, their own traditions sharply distinguish the Ents (and Entwives) from the other Speaking Peoples by that they attributed their origin not to the design of the gods but to another species. "Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak,...

Love in the treesTom Bombadil and the Ents have buried themselves in little niches and it seems there is no digging them up for new discussion. We should try to change that. The most common question asked about Bombadil is, "Why didn't the Ring affect him?" In reality, that question should be, "Why didn't Bombadil want the Ring." There is a difference. I believe the Ring did affect old Tom, at least to the extent that it roused his curiosity and drew his interest long enough that he had to satisfy himself regarding whether he was still his own master.As...

(Meena Apsa ho Ambarenya: Tyava ai Randa Lo Nelde)In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and a nasty oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy-hole with nothing to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. -- J.R.R. Tolkien (from The Hobbit) And that means food. Hobbits love to eat, six times a day if they can get it, and they love to have 'transportable' food, so as never to go hungry. There are desserts and beverages aplenty...

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water  Why did the Ents end up in Fangorn Forest? How, and when, did they make the trek across Middle-earth to the southern end of the Misty Mountains? And why did they move all the way down there? Fangorn tells Merry and Pippin that he once wandered through the willow-meads of Tasarinan. "Willow-meads" is a curious turn of phrase. Trees don't grow in meadows. But Tolkien loved to scatter willows around Middle-earth, along with rivers and lakes. And willows do grow beside rivers and lakes.The willow has long been...