Santa Barbara, California - Moreton Bay Fig Tree

There are a lot of giant trees in the world but this one is especially big. Just off Highway 101 in Santa Barbara is a fig tree, planted by a little girl in 1874, who got the seed from an Australian sailor. On the Mapquest aerial photos you can see it as a big dark round spot. The branch span is 170 feet and they claim that 16,000 people could stand under the tree. You used to be able to climb up the buttresses, and see homeless people camped out in the hollows. It's a little more orderly now but still impressive. Pictures don't do it justice because it's too big to comprehend. [Gil Silberman, 10/29/2002]