Lepidodendron Tree Attention Have You Seen This Tree

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Lepidodendron Tree Attention Have You Seen This Tree is a surreal image macro warning viewers that spotting an extinct Lepidodendron may mean they slipped through a rip in time. First posted to iFunny in August 2021, the meme took off on TikTok in September 2023 through photo slideshows and animations set to a haunting Japanese sound.

Overview

The Lepidodendron Tree meme, usually shared under the title "Attention: Have You Seen This Tree?", is an infographic-style image that warns anyone who has seen the extinct Carboniferous plant that they may have fallen into a rip in the fabric of time and should "remain calm"1. The visual mimics a clinical public safety poster, pairing a photograph of the fossil tree with unsettling instructional copy5.

It sits inside the surreal meme and "distressing" image genres, a sibling to other "Attention: Have You Seen This X?" warnings such as multiple "Have You Seen This Bird?" variants5. The joke lands on the mismatch between the calm bureaucratic voice and the cosmic implication that the viewer has time travelled by accident, an angle that fit neatly into surreal meme communities on Reddit and Instagram3.

How It Spread

The meme jumped off iFunny in mid-2022. On June 15th, 2022, Redditor Daniel_Devito_Dong shared a lower quality version to r/surrealmemes and pulled about 8,500 upvotes within a year3. Weeks later, on July 3rd, 2022, Instagram account @thesurrealbank posted the image and gathered roughly 15,800 likes4.

TikTok is where the trend exploded. On September 3rd, 2023, TikToker @jese2063 published a photo slideshow that opened with the tree warning and pulled around 4.5 million plays and 656,400 likes in three weeks6. The clip used a sound titled "空間攻撃からの脱出" (translated from Japanese) by Rory in early 20s7. Ten days later, TikToker @jaygee_franky released an animation set to the same track showing a character stumbling onto the tree, landing roughly 1.3 million plays and 163,800 likes8.

Copycats piled on through late September 2023. TikToker @.bruhathkayosaurus paired the tree with the 2,000 Yard Stare image on September 16th and drew about 172,700 likes9. On September 21st, TikToker @izoluss.the.great posted a Fionna and Cake edit that hit 578,000 plays10. The bit stretched into real life when TikToker @2econdsightseer filmed an actual tree that looked like a Lepidodendron on September 26th, 2023, gathering 4.5 million plays and 407,600 likes in two days11. By September 28th, 2023, the primary sound had over 6,100 posts attached to it6.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Lepidodendron Tree post opens with the "Attention: Have You Seen This Tree?" image and cuts to a punchline treating the sighting as an excuse for a mundane failure, often being late to work, class, or a meeting6. On TikTok, creators commonly set the slideshow to Rory in early 20s' "空間攻撃からの脱出" sound and mix in cursed images or fan-art characters reacting to the tree in horror8. IRL versions typically film a real tree with knobby bark that mimics the Lepidodendron's diamond-scale trunk11.

Frequently Asked Questions