In the 1980s, a curious tree native to Mexico was declared endangered. It was discovered that a specimen was kept alive in the city of Toluca and the city council declared it an emblem of the city. It is called Árbol de Manitas (“tree of the little hands”) for its unusual flowers, which resemble small hands. In 1803, explorers Alexander Von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland traveled to Mexico, where they first came across this curious tree. Bonpland classified it as the world’s first tree of the Sterculiaceae type (tropical softwood…
