The tree at the bottom of the world—and the wind-blasted trek to find it
Where on this warming planet, you ask, is the southernmost tree? Look no further: National Geographic sent a team to hunt it down.
Searching for Earth’s southernmost tree, scientists traverse windswept Isla Hornos. They sometimes had to walk on top of thick trees and shrubs, moving gingerly to avoid sliding into steep ravines.
ByCraig Welch
Email
Seven trees sprout on a hillside near the southern tip of South America, above the treacherous swirl of spray where the Pacific Ocean meets the Atlantic.
It’s not an impressive bunch—just a tangle of gnarled limbs and silver bark hidden by reedy grass. A few are dead. None reaches higher than my thigh. The living bend and curl their way a dozen feet across the ground, like soldiers clawing through battlefield mud. Furious winds have driven the trunks completely horizontal.