Bleeding trees

In the Welsh town of Nevern, there's an extraordinary tree—a yew over seven hundred years old—from whose trunk for decades a red liquid resembling blood has oozed. Local legend has it that this is the blood of a medieval monk who was wrongly killed. However, scientists disagree, pointing to rainwater mixed with the dye from rotting wood.

One such specimen is a yew tree over seven hundred years old, growing in St. Brynach Cemetery in the Welsh village of Nevern, near Newport in Pembrokeshire. For several decades, a red, blood-like fluid had been oozing from a natural fissure in the trunk, about two meters above the ground.

According to local legend, it was the blood of a medieval monk, hanged in the cemetery for a crime he didn't commit. Scientist Derek Patch of the Forestry Commission, however, claims it was rainwater that collected in the tree hollow, soaked in the dye from the rotting tree, and flowed down as a red liquid.

A eucalyptus tree, felled on June 19, 1984, near the village of Ambohibao in Madagascar, surprised everyone by unexpectedly spurting out jets of red, blood-like fluid at the first blow of the axe. The macabre event prompted local residents to worship the tree, especially since it grew in a sacred place known as the "tomb of the witches."

When samples of the tree's "blood" were scientifically analyzed, the red pigment was found to be most likely a water-soluble flavonoid compound known as anthocyanin