Trees That Ate Bikes, a Bench and a Postbox (14 Photos)

Trees that grew around whatever was in the way

Trees don’t eat anything. They just keep getting wider, and whatever is left against a trunk slowly ends up inside the wood, a little more every year. On Vashon Island, a child’s bike sticks out from both sides of a trunk.

More: When Trees Become Art (12 Photos)

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🚲 The Bike in the Tree — Vashon Island, Washington, USA 🇺🇸

Handlebars and the front wheel stick out of one side of the trunk, the back wheel out of the other. The tree stands in the woods near Vashon Highway SW on Vashon Island, and in 2009 the bike was about a dozen feet up.

💡 Myth Fact: Islander Don Puz left the bike in the woods in 1954 and forgot about it. The story of a boy who went off to the First World War and never came back is not true, and the bike was almost certainly moved after Puz left it. It inspired Berkeley Breathed’s picture book Red Ranger Came Calling (1994).

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsBike in the TreeVashon, United StatesVashon IslandChild’s bicycle1HistoryLink associates the bicycle with Don Puz and 1954.historylink.org2KUOW reported that Jeff Ammon replaced missing handlebars and a wheel.archive.kuow.org20132 JanReported by ABC News201320 SepPhoto uploaded by this date201410 SepLocal KUOW report202424 MarVisitor account published; visit and photo dates unstatedRead the full file →

📷 Photo and cover crop: rev.sherm / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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🪑 The Hungry Tree — King’s Inns, Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪

The armrest is gone, and the seat is going. This London plane stands by the entrance to the King’s Inns park on Constitution Hill in Dublin and has grown around the cast-iron bench beside it. The Irish Times put the tree at about 80 years old in 2017.

💡 Protection Fact: In 2017 a Dublin councilor asked for a tree preservation order and protected status for the bench. The council replied that the bench was already protected as part of King’s Inns, and asked whether the tree was endangering it. The Tree Council of Ireland lists it as a Heritage Tree.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe Hungry TreeDublin, IrelandLondon planeCast-iron bench1A London plane is growing around a cast-iron bench.irishtimes.com2According to TheJournal.ie, the tree stands by the South Gate of King’s Inns.thejournal.ie20144 MarTree and bench photographed by William Murphy201721 JulProtection debate reported2018FebReport on existing site protectionRead the full file →

📷 Photo: William Murphy / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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📮 The Postbox Tree — Fitz-George Avenue, London, UK 🇬🇧

The bark has rolled over the cap of a red Royal Mail pillar box on Fitz-George Avenue in West Kensington and is working its way down the side. Back in 2008, a Geograph photographer captioned it “No, you aren’t seeing things.”

📷 Photo and cover crop: Peter Trimming / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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💣 The Cannonball Tree — Quebec City, Canada 🇨🇦

In this photo, an iron ball sits in the roots of an elm on rue Saint-Louis in Old Quebec, at the corner of rue du Corps-de-Garde.

💡 Legend Fact: Legend said the roots had caught a stray cannonball from the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Researchers later found that it was a firebomb, put there on purpose as a guard stone to keep horses and carts off the corner of the building.

💡 Afterlife Fact: The sick elm was cut down in 2021. Drum maker William Leclerc of Ebenor Percussion later turned some of its wood into 10 snare drums and a drum kit, which sold out in about three weeks.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsArbre au bouletQuébec City, CanadaOld QuébecAmerican elmIron bomb1An American elm grew around the iron sphere.artpublic.ville.quebec.qc.ca2Québec City identifies the sphere as an incendiary bomb reused as a wheel guard.artpublic.ville.quebec.qc.ca201418 JulElm and iron sphere photographed20154 JunHistorical explanation published2021Elm felled2024Paryse Martin memorial created; original elm remains goneRead the full file →

📷 Photo: Jeangagnon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), cropped

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🪦 The Hardy Tree — St Pancras Old Church, London, UK 🇬🇧

In this 2007 photo, old headstones lean together in rings around the base of an ash. They were moved in the 1860s, when part of the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church was cleared for the Midland Railway.

💡 Tree Fact: The young Thomas Hardy, then working for the architect Arthur Blomfield, helped with that clearance and is widely believed to have arranged these stones, though that isn’t documented. A 1926 photo shared by the Thomas Hardy Society shows no ash, so the tree most likely came later. It fell in December 2022; a beech was planted elsewhere in the gardens in April 2024. The stones are still there.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe Hardy TreeLondon, United KingdomSt PancrasGravestones1According to the Camden New Journal, an ash grew through a ring of relocated gravestones.camdennewjournal.co.uk2Camden Council says a fungal infection was identified in 2014.news.camden.gov.uk200730 MarAsh and gravestones photographed202227 DecFall reported202228 DecCamden confirms the fallen tree202412 AprNew commemorative beech planted nearby; original ash remains goneRead the full file →

📷 Photo: David Edgar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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🚲 The Bike on the Trestle — Washington, DC, USA 🇺🇸

The seat and part of the frame stick out of the trunk, and the chainring is half under the bark. Someone is said to have left the bike in the fork of a tree growing on an abutment of the Foundry Branch Trestle in Georgetown.

💡 Bridge Fact: The trestle was built in 1896 and carried streetcars from Georgetown toward Glen Echo until 1960. By July 2026 the National Park Service had agreed to let Metro remove it.

📷 Photo: G. Edward Johnson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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🛞 The Wagon Wheel Tree — Palmetto State Park, Texas, USA 🇺🇸

An old iron wagon wheel lies around the foot of a tree beside a trail, and the trunk has grown over its rim. Larry D. Moore photographed it in February 2023 at Palmetto State Park in Gonzales County.

💡 Park Fact: The park opened in 1936, and the Civilian Conservation Corps built many of its stone structures in the 1930s. It is named after the dwarf palmettos that grow there.

📷 Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

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🚳 “Cycling Prohibited” — Vire Island, Totnes, UK 🇬🇧

The sign still gets its message across, but the bark has already taken the first letters of both words. It hangs on a tree on Vire Island, a narrow strip of riverside park on the River Dart in Totnes, Devon.

💡 Name Fact: The island is named after Vire, the town in Normandy that Totnes is twinned with.

📷 Photo: Phil Gayton / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

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🙏 Buddha Head in the Roots — Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya, Thailand 🇹🇭

Only the face is free. The rest of this sandstone head is wrapped in the roots of a fig tree at Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya, Thailand’s old royal capital.

💡 History Fact: The Burmese army attacked and razed Ayutthaya in 1767. How the head got into the tree is unknown; one common belief is that it broke off during that attack and the roots grew around it later.

💡 Visitor Fact: Thailand’s tourism authority asks visitors not to take photos while standing over the Buddha’s head, so people squat for the picture.

📷 Photo: Horiuchi / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

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🎣 “Private Fishing” — Buckden, North Yorkshire, UK 🇬🇧

Three “Private Fishing” signs, one tree. The two older ones are already partly under the bark, and a newer one hangs above them. Rob Burke photographed the tree near Buckden in the Yorkshire Dales in May 2011 and asked on Geograph, “How long before the next sign needs replacing?”

📷 Photo: Rob Burke / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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🌳 The Cemetery Tree — Table Rock, Nebraska, USA 🇺🇸

In this 1983 photo, a small white headstone sits in a notch at the foot of the trunk, with the bark closing in from both sides. This is the city cemetery of Table Rock, Nebraska.

📷 Photo: Tequask / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🏀 The Basketball Hoop Tree — Berlin, New York, USA 🇺🇸

A black cherry has grown around the red steel bars of a basketball hoop support along Lake Road in Berlin, in New York’s Rensselaer County.

📷 Photo: Famartin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🪨 The Millstone Tree — Löbtau, Dresden, Germany 🇩🇪

A millstone was left standing on its edge against this trunk, and the bark has grown down over its top edge. The tree is in the Pulvermühlenpark in Dresden’s Löbtau district; the photo is from October 2014.

💡 Mill Fact: The park opened in October 2014 on the site of the old gunpowder mill of the Saxon electors, and two silhouette mill wheels in the former millrace mark where the mill stood.

📷 Photo: Ubahnverleih / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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🛕 Ta Prohm — Angkor, Cambodia 🇰🇭

At Ta Prohm, the roots of giant spung (Tetrameles nudiflora), silk-cotton and strangler fig trees pour over the roofs and doorways. When Angkor was restored, the French scholars in charge left most of Ta Prohm untouched, trees and all.

💡 Temple Fact: King Jayavarman VII founded Ta Prohm, and its foundation stele is dated 1186. The temple is also one of the locations in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, released in 2001.

📷 Photo: GayleKaren / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)