Visiting the Valley of the Square Trees

Follow me to the Valley of the Square Trees

The world is full of strange flora: venus flytraps that eat their insect prey whole, corpse flowers that give off a scent of dead flesh when they bloom, and plants that imitate bats.

Despite a cornucopia of biodiversity, there is one attribute that few plants have mastered: corners. Nearly everything in the plant world has linear, radial or spherical symmetry.

Enter the square tree.

Square trees can be found only in the village of El Valle, Panama. Getting there via bus from Panama City requires about two hours of riding along a scenic, mountain route. These trees were not grown in square pots or with restrictions around their trunks. Like Alex Keaton, they are square simply because they are square.

The hike to the square trees starts with a wooden bridge from a very fancy hotel. The path goes past some trees with acne and some interesting flowers. The village was at a tiny bit of altitude, so the temperature is manageable even on a warm day. Even so, you should carry along plenty of water.

Before finding the square trees, you might encounter some trees with wide, flat roots. Although the flat roots give these trees a hit of squareness, they are not the square trees that you are looking for.

Continue on, and you'll find several trees which are most definitely square.

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