A sitka spruce growing on Motu Ihupuku / Campbell Island, 170 miles distant from the next closest tree.
Motu Ihupuku (Campbell Island) is an uninhabited sub-antarctic island of New Zealand. With a maritime tundra climate touting consistent rain and wind (precipitation 325 days a year, gale-force winds 100 days a year), the island is home to seabirds, seals, grasses, mosses, and shrubs.
And exactly one tree.
The loneliest tree in the world was planted sometime in the early 1900s, by then-governor Lord Ranfurly. A native plant to the western coast of North America, the sitka spruce is a giant-type tree that forms stands in the temperate rainforests along the coast of Oregon, Washington, and western Canada. This means the sitka on Motu Ihupuku is about 7000 miles (11250 km) outside of its natural range.
But this is not why it is called the loneliest tree– the closest tree of ANY kind is more than 170 miles (275 km) northeast on the Auckland Islands, which grants it the world record in remoteness.
Growing low on the shore of a windswept bay, this sitka has watched the start (and end) of seal and whale hunting on the island; the introduction (and later eradication) of rats, sheep, and feral cattle; the development of a weather station that was once seasonally peopled and is now fully automated. It survived the taking of its center spike for a Christmas tree by meteorologists the 1970s (though not without some... edits to the classical, coneline spruce shape) and it managed to not be eaten by any wildlife, introduced or otherwise. Albatross nest in the cliffs around it and the Aurora Australis- the southern lights- play overhead.
In 2014, climate scientists took core samples from the tree, looking for markers of historical environmental changes. Despite its isolation, the rings clearly indicate radiocarbon spikes from nuclear testing and bombing, peaking in about 1965. Because of this, the tree has been proposed as a "golden spike" of the anthropocene- a signifier of the point at which the whole world had been indelibly touched by the human species, no matter how distant or remote.
Habitat restoration work continues on Motu Ihupuku, but the world's loneliest tree is not at risk of removal despite its non-native status. Without another spruce, any seeds produced would be nonviable. For now, it will be allowed to age in-place for the remaining 600 years of its natural lifespan.
An article about taking samples from the tree.
The previous holder of the "loneliest tree" record, until 1973.
