Is This An Image of an "April Snow" Tree in China Or Another AI Creation?

The wonder of nature has captured people's attention for generations with its stunning landscapes, unique creatures, and incredible natural events. People love to share their appreciation for nature on social media. But unfortunately, misinformation can also spread quickly, leading to confusion and misunderstandings.

Recently, we found another picture of a beautiful yet peculiar tree in China, claiming to be an extremely rare tree. So naturally, this picture drew lots of attention and also suspicion from social media users.

Social Media Claim

A social media user posted a picture in the "Strange World" Facebook group claiming to depict the rare "Losu tree" or "April snow" tree found in China. The picture shows a tree with large, white circular flowers resembling snow all over it. The claim suggests that only three of these trees exist and that they bloom once a year in April. It further asserts that the Chinese government provides severe protection to preserve these trees.

Source | Archive

In addition to this group, we discovered that a picture claiming to depict a "Losu tree" was widely shared on the internet.

This post was previously shared on March 16 and received over 50K reactions and 17K shares.

Source | Archive

The image was also shared on Twitter and even Reddit. And after investigation, we found that this image is most likely AI-generated.

Fact-Check

A reverse image search was conducted to verify this claim's authenticity. Unfortunately, the picture’s origin could not be traced to any specific context regarding this tree. However, it was discovered that a Chinese social media user posted the photo on Sina.com, a Chinese social platform, with the same claim that it was the "April snow" tree or, in Chinese, "四月雪." (Source | Archive)

Further investigation was conducted using this keyword, which led to the discovery of the actual "April snow" trees. These trees are not the Losu tree but rather the Tassel tree (Chionanthus retusus). The tassel tree is a species of flowering plant in the olive family, native to China, Japan, and Korea. The tree is known for its fragrant, white, snow-like flowers that bloom in early spring, and it has earned the nickname "April Snow."

Picture of “四月雪” or April Snow tassels in Quancheng Park, by a News account, Qilu Yidian (齐鲁壹点)

Source

Moreover, the Facebook page of China News 中国新闻网 posted pictures of a century-old tassel tree and mentioned its nickname "April Snow." This further proves that the tassel tree is the actual "April Snow" tree and not the Losu tree, as the viral post claims.

Since we also didn’t find any authentic information about the “Losu tree” to further verify the authenticity of the claimed picture, we analyzed it using an AI image detection website called Hugging Face.

The results also show that the picture is 100% artificial and not a genuine photograph of a tree, another red flag indicating that the image had a very high probability of being created using AI tools.

In conclusion, the viral picture claiming to be the Losu tree or the April snow tree found in China is misleading. The tree in the picture is most likely an artificial creation, and the actual "April Snow" trees are tassel trees and are different from the image viral on social media.