Before you ask, the answer is yes, Tree is my real name. Right there on my birth certificate, passport, everything. Why, you wonder? I’ve got a few stories I pull out, depending on who’s asking. But you didn’t come here to read about me, so instead of my own story, here are the seven best trees from throughout popular culture.

7. The Giving Tree, “The Giving Tree”

This Shel Silverstein classic is divisive among critics of children’s literature. Is it a touching portrait of altruism or a despicable endorsement of subservience? Either way, the poor tree’s self-sacrifice in the name of love has become inextricable from the children’s literary canon.

6. The Whomping Willow, The Harry Potter Series

At first, I thought this tree was a little too mainstream a pick, but I didn’t want to bruise its pride; after all, did you see what it did to the Weasleys’ car?

5. Treebeard, the Lord of the Rings trilogy

“Tree? I am no tree!” Face it, big guy—you’re a tree. Because who’s going to make a “Top 5 Ents” list any time soon?

4. The Kite-Eating Tree, “Peanuts”

Not only is this a standout tree, but it’s also one of the most unrelenting, insidious villains in comics and pop culture at large. Lucy, another bane of poor Charlie Brown’s existence, even let him kick the football a couple times.