Ténéré Tree (French: L’Arbre du Ténéré) in 1961. Photo: wikipedia The Ténéré Tree was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth. The closest tree’s distance to it was over 400 kilometres (250 mi). It was a was a solitary acacia, of either Acacia raddiana or Acacia tortilis.

It was a landmark on caravan routes through the Ténéré region of the Sahara Desert in northeast Niger, so well known that it and the Arbre Perdu or ‘Lost Tree’ to the north are the only trees to be shown on a map at a scale of 1:4,000,000. It was knocked down in 1973, supposedly by an apparently drunk truck driver.