Aspire Park’s 23 floss silk trees, commonly known as the boab, were imported fully grown from Argentina and cost an astounding $21,000 each, a park official has said.

The trees, which have swollen trunks and a bottle-like appearance, have amazed and delighted park visitors since 2007, when they journeyed by ship to Doha.

Adrian Black, section head of landscape for Aspire Logistics, explains the story of the trees in an interview with the Qatar Tribune.

Here are some excerpts:

Bringing fully matured and living trees to Qatar was the first project of its kind for the country…

“The paper work involved was enormous but our project director, who is a Qatari, was able to assist us,” (Black) explained.

“One may wonder how a fullygrown tree could be transported across seas,” Black said while explaining the process.

“The trees were wrapped in coconut and litmus mixture to preserve the roots with nutrients and other solid crystals packed in to help it hold the water required to keep the tree alive during its long journey,” he said…

Shedding light on the special features that help this tree to adapt to Qatar’s climate, he said that its big trunk stores enough water and nutrients to see it through dry seasons.

“Water conservation is one characteristic that sets floss silk tree apart from other trees: the more you water other species, the deeper go their roots.

But the floss silk tree has most of its nutrients stored up, it needs a little bit less water,” he said.

Although the floss silk has to be watered during the summer, it is not as much as other trees.

Read the full article here.

And if you haven’t seen them yet, duck into Aspire and check out these trees!

They’re truly a sight to see.