Forestry workers in east China's Jiangxi Province have found an extremely large camphor tree, believed to be over 2,000 years old.  

The rare ancient tree, still alive and burgeoning in very healthy condition, stands in Zhoujia village, Yonghe town in Ji'an county. Its huge trunk has a perimeter of 24.8 meters and around 15 people are needed to encircle the trunk.

The tree, resembling an imposing, gigantic umbrella if seen in distance, has a crown of over 300 square meters.

Surprisingly, six other unnamed species of smaller trees have grown on the ancient tree, either sprouting out of holes in the camphor or shooting up between its limbs. The thickest one is about half a meter in diameter.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2003)