Where do the tallest trees grow? The oldest, tallest, widest and largest trees in the world

Today, the tallest tree in the world is the Hyperion sequoia.

The height of this tree is 115.6 m. The trunk diameter is 4.84 m. It grows in the USA, California. Approximate age 700 – 800 years. This tree was discovered in 2006 by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. You will not find real photographs of this tree, since its location is kept secret.

IN modern world only two types of trees are considered the tallest. These are eucalyptus trees, which grow on the Australian mainland, and North American redwood trees.

Tallest tree in the world video:

The tallest tree among eucalyptus trees.

Eucalyptus is the tallest evergreen flowering plant on the planet, belonging to the Myrtle family, genus Eucalyptus. They grow mainly in Australia and Tasmania. Australian eucalyptus trees are the most tall trees in the world. Their height can reach 100-150 m.

There was a time when the tallest tree belonged to the eucalyptus genus. There is a known specimen that grew to 189 m. Today, the tallest eucalyptus is “Centurion”, growing on the island of Tasmania and having a height of 101 m and a trunk diameter of 4 m. It was discovered in 2008.

"Centurion"

"El Grande"

A huge eucalyptus called "El Grande" was discovered in 2002 on the island of Tasmania. Unfortunately, in 2003 he died due to a fire.

The tallest tree in the world is the sequoia.

Sequoia is one of the tallest trees on Earth. This monotypic genus, which includes only one species of woody plants, belongs to the cypress family. Distribution area of this plant This is the Pacific coast of North America.

Until 2000, the tallest tree was considered to be the sequoia. belonging to the species — Sequoia sempervirens.

This Mendocino tree is 112.2 m high and 4.19 m in diameter. It is located in the USA, California.

The oldest clone tree on the planet is Tikko.

Old Tikko is a spruce tree that is 9550 years old. More precisely, this is the age of its root system. This tree is located on Mount Fulufjellet in Sweden. It is the oldest free-standing living tree - clone - in the world. It was discovered by Leif Kullman - professor physical geography, who gave the nickname to this tree in honor of his dog. The visible part of the tree is young, but it is part of the old root system. Over thousands of years, a tree can clone itself many times. The old trunk dies and a new one grows.

The oldest tree

Of the single trees, the oldest is Methuselah.

This bristlecone pine was discovered by botanist Edmund Shulman in 1953. The approximate age of the tree is 4846 years. It was planted in 2831 BC. Today, this tree is considered alive and grows in the Inyo National Forest in California (USA) at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level.

The thickest tree is Tule.

This tree grows in Mexico, in the city of Santa Maria del Tule. The height of the tree is 40 m, trunk diameter is 14 m, circumference is 40, weight is 636 tons. If 30 people join hands, they can embrace this tree. On the trunk of this tree you can see figures of animals: a lion, a crocodile, an elephant. This tree may have inspired the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom in Florida.

Mysterious "tree of life".

In Florida, at Animal Kingdom Park, there is this tree of life. The height of this tree is 44 meters. 12 craftsmen worked to create a tree with many animals depicted on it. The tree itself is artificial. There is a cinema inside it.

The loneliest tree is Tenere.

In the Tenere desert, which is part of the Sahara, located in the northeast of Niger, until 1973, a single acacia tree grew, which was 300 years old. Not a single plant grew within 200 km of it. For caravanners, the crown of a tree served as a landmark in the desert. To extract water from the ground, the roots of the tree grew 36 meters down. Due to the fault of a drunk driver, this tree was broken. In its place now stands a metal monument resembling a tree.

The tree of Life"

In the kingdom of Bahrain - a small Arab state, in the desert near the city of Jebel - Dukhan, there grows the same lonely tree as Tenere once was, but a living 400-year-old tree - Shajarat-al-Hayat. The tree belongs to the species Prosopis cineraria, whose roots go 50 meters underground.

The oldest oak - chapel

Thanks to the botanist Henri Gadot de Querville, since 1932 this oak has been considered historical monument France. There is a possibility that that tree is more than 800 years old. Its height is 15 meters, its circumference is 16m. Inside the oak tree there are two chapels, accessed by a spiral staircase. Every year up to 40 thousand people visit this chapel.

Trees. Fight for life.

Socotra Island, Yemen.

Canada. Port Renfrew. Small tree on a log.

City of Kalaloh. Washington.

Crimea. On the way to the Foros Church.

The tallest tree in Russia is fir - a coniferous tree belonging to the pine family.

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Incredible facts

If you watched the movie Avatar, then you were probably impressed by the forests of Pandora. But to see the most fantastic trees, you don't have to go on an intergalactic journey.

Trees are part of our lives, providing us with oxygen, food, homes, warmth and building materials. There are about 100,000 various types trees, including a quarter of all living plant species on Earth.

Among the billions of trees around the world, there are completely unique and amazing representatives.

1. Giant sequoia "General Sherman"

Giant sequoias that grow in Sierra Nevada in California they are considered the largest trees in terms of volume. The largest tree is " General Sherman" V Sequoia National Park, the height of which reaches 83 m, the volume is about 1,486 cubic meters. m, and weighs more than 6000 tons. The tree is believed to be somewhere between 2,300 and 2,700 years old, and each year the tree grows as much wood as a typical 18-foot tree. It is a real natural masterpiece and greatest living organism on earth.

2. Aspen poplar: Pando

Pando or Trembling Giant, located in Utah, USA, is an amazing massive colony aspen trees, sprawled across 100 acres in Utah. Almost all the trees in this colony are genetically identical, that is, they are clones of each other. Every tree in this area comes from a single organism, being part of a giant underground root system.

Pando consists of 47,000 trunks, and its collective weight is 6,600 tons, making it the heaviest organism in the world. Although average age individual trunks are about 130 years old, the entire body is already about 80,000 years.

3. Taxodium mexicanis: Tule tree

The Thule tree is a particularly large tree of the species Taxodium mexicanis which is located near the city Oaxaca in Mexico. By this tree largest trunk girth(58 m) and a trunk diameter of 11.5 m. It is said that Thule tree so thick that you don’t hug it, but it hugs you.

The tree is believed to be about 2000 years old. For a time, detractors claimed that there were actually three trees camouflaging there, but careful DNA analysis confirmed that it was, in fact, one beautiful tree.

In 1994, the tree was under threat: the leaves became painful yellow and there were dead branches everywhere. The tree was dying. When the “healers” of the trees were called, it turned out that the problem due to which the Tule tree suffered was ordinary thirst and it needed to be treated with water. Naturally, after careful water procedures, the tree came to life.

4. Tree of Life

The tree of Life in Bahrain it is the loneliest tree in the world. The mesquite tree is located on the highest point of the barren desert of Bahrain, hundreds of kilometers from other natural trees. It is believed that its roots extend several tens of meters to aquifers. The exact age of the tree is unknown, but it is believed to be over 400 years old.

However, the secret Tree of life is not its size, age or shape, although it is quite large and very beautiful. The most amazing thing is that it stands apart in barren desert on the highest point of Bahrain, in an area where there is absolutely no water. In a place where it seemed nothing could survive, this tree seems to radiate life itself. People come here in droves, as locals believe that the tree stands on the site of the Garden of Eden.

5. Wollemia

Despite its uniqueness and beauty, interesting qualities Wollemia are not hiding in appearance, but in his history.

Wollemia, growing in Australia, is a real living dinosaur. Oldest tree fossil Wollemia dates back to 200 million years ago. When, in 1994, scientists suddenly discovered living tree Wollemia, they were simply dumbfounded.

The exact location of these coniferous trees was carefully hidden in order to protect those remaining trees, of which there are less than 100 left in nature. To save these trees from extinction, a program was launched in 2006 that allowed the general public to purchase seedlings Wollemia and now they can be seen in various botanical gardens.

6. Pirangi Cashew Tree

This famous tree, located near the city of Natal in Brazil, is a 177-year-old cashew tree that covers almost 2 hectares of land. It was planted in 1888 by a fisherman who did not know that the tree had genetic mutation, which allowed him to take up so much space. Unlike an ordinary cashew tree, when the branches of the tree Pirangi touch the ground, it takes root and continues to grow.

Today this tree serves as a tourist attraction. When you approach this largest cashew tree in the world, you will feel like you are entering a forest. In fact, this is all one tree, the size of which reaches 8400 square meters. m. Tree 80 times larger than the average cashew tree and covers an area larger than a football field, bearing about 80,000 fruits per year.

7. Tenere Tree

The Ténéré tree is mentioned in this list because it no longer exists. A lone acacia tree growing in the Sahara Desert in Niger, Africa, which was more than 300 years old, was the only tree within a radius of about 400 km. It was the only tree that remained from a huge forest that was swallowed up by the merciless desert. When the scientists dug a hole next to the tree, they discovered that its roots went down to a depth of 36 m below the groundwater level.

In 1973, the Tenere tree was hit by a drunk truck driver, and today a metal monument was built on the site in honor of Lone Tree Tenere.

8. Banyan: Mahabodhi Tree

The banyan tree is named after the banyan trees or Hindu traders who sold their goods sitting under this tree. Even if you have never heard of the banyan tree, you will probably recognize it. The shape of this giant tree cannot be confused with anything: a majestic dome with aerial roots that descend from the branches to the ground.

One of the most famous types of banyan tree is called ficus sacred or bo tree is Mahabodhi tree V Anuradhapura, in Sri Lanka. The tree is said to have been grown from a cutting from a real tree, under which Buddha achieved enlightenment in the 6th century BC

Having been planted in 288 BC, it is the oldest tree in the world, planted by a man with exact date landings.

9. Baobab

Madagascar is considered the birthplace of the baobab; it is also common in Africa and Australia. Baobab trees are the oldest forms of life on mainland Africa and many of those that still stand today have been growing since Roman times.

Amazing baobab or " monkey breadfruit" can grow up to 30 m in height and 11 m in width. They remain without leaves for most of the year . Characteristic feature Baobab is their pot-bellied trunk, which serves as a water storage facility. baobab tree can hold up to 120,000 liters of water to survive severe drought conditions. Some trunks are so large that people live inside the tree.

One of the most beautiful clusters of baobabs of the species Adansonia Grandidier located on Baobab Avenue in Morondava in Madagascar. Some baobabs take on the shape of a bottle, a skull, and even a teapot.

10. Dragon Tree

Dragon's Tree Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife, one of Canary Islands, is a unique representative. It is believed to be between 650 and 1,500 years old, but experts find it difficult to draw exact conclusions as it does not have one trunk. He's more likely consists of many small trunks, which hold on to each other as they grow upward.

It has a dense canopy of leaves and gets its name from the resin that is released when its bark and leaves are cut. Residents believe that this is dried dragon blood and have been using it to treat various ailments since ancient times.

Today we present to your attention our research on the topic “What is the most a big tree in the world".
But what does “big” mean? High? Tolstoy? Old? After all, all these indicators are important, but there is no tree that would combine them all.

We will tell you about all the record holders among trees. Decide for yourself which of them is considered the largest.

10 Princely apple tree

A unique tree grows in Ukraine, in the city of Korolevets. This apple tree, which is about two centuries old, has an ability, unprecedented in trees of this species, to root branches that have descended to the ground.

After rooting, the branch shoots upward, and a new tree appears, which is actually the same organism. That's why unique tree called a colony apple tree.

The same organism has many root systems and trunks (and the mother trunk has already died) and occupies an area of about one hundred square meters. “Trees” (and, in fact, shoots) are covered with leaves and bloom every year, but only half of the apple tree bears fruit, while the other “rests,” and the next year they change.

The fruits are bittersweet. At the foot of the apple tree there is a gravestone of one of the Meshchersky princes, which is why the apple tree got its name.

One well-grown banyan tree is a whole forest, because the horizontal branches of the tree give off so-called aerial roots. If they manage to touch the ground, they take root and begin to grow deeper, creating a real root system, and upward, growing a trunk, the branches of which are woven into the crown of the “twins” - other similar “children”.

From the point of view of scientists, since all the “babies” have the same DNA, they are one plant.
In India, near Calcutta, the Great Banyan grows, the crown of which covers an area of 1.4 hectares, and its age is 250 years.

The ficus tree has 3,000 trunks, but the main one died during the tsunami. However, often the largest tree in the world (by crown) is considered to be the Great Banyan tree, growing near the city of Bangalore: it is 400 years old, and the crown area is 1.2 hectares.

Both banyan trees belong to the species Ficus bengalensis; A banyan tree is a ficus that can produce aerial roots.

8 Prometheus is one of the oldest trees in the world

In the middle of the last century, scientist D. Curry discovered a very old tree in the USA near Wheeler Peak Mountain, which later received the name Prometheus in honor of the hero of ancient Greek mythology. He suggested that the age of this tree is about 4 thousand years.

Technical capabilities at that time did not allow botanists to find out the age of a tree without cutting it down. Apparently, D. Curry was very unbearable, and he cut down amazing plant(it was a pine tree, by the way), and its trunk was cut into pieces and sent to various scientists so that they could determine the age of Prometheus more accurately.

According to scientists, the tree was more than 5 thousand years old. One can only wonder whether it was really necessary to destroy such a rarity.

7 Methuselah

Apparently, this is one of the oldest trees currently growing on the planet, and for a long time it was considered the oldest.

The oldest tree is almost 3 thousand years old, and the exact place where it grows is unknown. We can only say with certainty that a huge tree - the Methuselah pine - is located on the territory National Nature Reserve in California.

More accurate information is hidden in order to protect the pine from vandalism; there is not even a photo of a long-lived tree. One inevitably wonders: does a tree exist?

6 Old Tjikko

The world's oldest Christmas tree grows on the slope of Mount Fulu in Sweden. According to scientists, its age has far exceeded 9 thousand years!

It’s impossible to believe, but botanists believe that the tree could survive numerous natural disasters, which happened over 9 and a half millennia on our planet, if for a while it seemed to fall into lethargy.

Spruce was studied before, but then it was not recognized as the oldest tree in the world, because the trunk was analyzed, but it was not the mother trunk, but one of the offspring. Now scientists have found out this quite accurately, having determined the age of the horse system, but it is precisely 9550 years!

The unique tree is still growing little by little, although only half a century ago the spruce “fell asleep” due to the unfavorable state of the environment.

5 One of the thickest trees in the world is the baobab

Baobabs are record holders for thickness. At the same time, they have very loose wood, adapted to accumulate large volumes of water and use it during drought. At such times, the baobab loses almost half of its volume.

It is convenient to make hollows and even entire rooms in soft wood. So, you can meet completely unusual ways using baobabs with a hollow middle (such damage often occurs in trees of this species and does not lead to the death of the plant): equipped as a bus station waiting room, a public restroom, a bar and even a prison!

The diameter of the thickest known baobab was 9 meters, but even now it is not difficult to find individuals with extremely large trunks, which would require 30 people to stand in a round dance to cover!

A plant supposedly about 4 thousand years old, growing in Sicily, near Mount Etna, is not a tree, but five fused trees, which was confirmed by DNA analysis.

But it's still amazing biological organism, because the diameter of the resulting trunk is more than 20 meters, and a hundred horsemen can hide under its crown (an area of 64 sq.m.) (which explains its name).

Speaking about the largest trees on the planet, one cannot fail to mention the Thule tree, which is very old (according to some scientists, it is 2 thousand years old, others believe that it is three, and some even think that it is 6 thousand years old!), quite high ( forty meters), and the diameter of its trunk is about 14 meters!

It seems incredible that this is one tree, you might think that in front of us are several fused together, like the Hundred Horsemen of a chestnut tree, but DNA analysis confirmed: it is all one organism. This tree belongs to the cypress genus, and its biological species- Taxodium mexicanis.

It is located in Mexico, in a city called Santa Maria del Tule. There are many legends about this unique plant; the Indians readily tell them. Tree included as an object World Heritage UNESCO; Holidays are held annually in his honor.

2 Hyperion - the tallest sequoia in the world

The tallest tree in the world is considered to be Hyperion, a sequoia that was spotted ten years ago in a national park in the USA. The height of this tree is 115 and a half m.

Now growth has stopped due to the fact that its top is damaged by woodpeckers. For this reason, scientists believe that Hyperion will soon yield the palm to its closest competitor, Helios. This is also a sequoia in the same park, but it is still a little over a meter lower than Hyperion. However, Helios is growing, but the current record holder is not.

At the same time, the tallest tree is neither the oldest (its age hardly exceeds 900 years), nor the thickest and heaviest, so it still cannot be considered the largest tree on the planet.

1 General Sherman

Introducing the General Sherman, a tree that is now considered the largest on Earth. Its height, however, is somewhat lower than that of Hyperion (and Helios too), - 83.8 m, and its diameter is less than that of Thule - 11 and a bit meters, but in terms of volume and mass, General Sherman exceeds all other trees, so from this point of view he is a record holder.

The tree grows in the US Sequoia National Park and belongs to the sequoiadendron species.
You can see a photo of the largest tree, but the tree itself cannot.

Scientists fear a large influx of tourists to the stunning sequoiadendron, which, in principle, could lead to damage to the tree as a result of vandalism or disruption of the ecosystem in which General Sherman is accustomed to being.

His name is Hyperion. Hyperion - sequoia. Specifically, evergreen sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens). Among the giant trees, there is competition for the title of the tallest on the planet. Thus, Hyperion was recognized as the highest in August 2006.

Sequoia To tell the truth, the trees themselves, of course, are not aware of their participation in such a competition. Searching for the tallest, fattest, oldest, growing in extreme conditions, and other things people do. Let's take a closer look at the world of dendro giants.

Tree giants

There are not so many varieties of trees whose height reaches sixty meters or more on our planet. Botanists include common spruce and mountain pine among them; they grow up to 60-70 meters. False Lawson's cypress, known to many gardeners as Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), can reach a height of eighty meters in natural conditions. Firs: noble, Nordmann, and also Douglas fir, otherwise called Menzies pseudo-hemlock. Douglas fir is the second tallest tree today; a height of seventy meters is not uncommon for it. The tallest specimen of Douglas fir living today is nicknamed "Doerner Fir", its height is 99.4 meters. The regal eucalyptus also has an impressive size, which can grow more than a hundred meters.

Climbing the redwoods. Photo by Michael Nichols from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Climbing the redwoods. Photo by Michael Nichols from nationalgeographic.com However, the “yellow leadership jersey” rightfully belongs to the redwoods. There are, in fact, evergreen sequoia (or red, Redwood) and giant sequoia (or sequoiadendron), representatives of which are also called mammoth trees for their gigantic dimensions. Sequoias are taller, but sequoiadendrons have a thicker trunk.

Sequoiadendrons - mammoth trees

General Sherman, Hyperion and Helios

As mentioned above, the tallest tree on Earth today is the evergreen sequoia named Hyperion. Height of a tree growing in northern California at national park Redwood is 115.61 meters, the trunk diameter at 1.5 meters is 4.84 meters. The giant's age is about eight hundred years. Hyperion was “unlucky”: a woodpecker damaged its top, so the giant’s growth slowed down. Perhaps very soon he will have to give up the palm to another representative of the red sequoias - Helios. Helios continues to grow actively, and in 2015 its height was 114 meters 58 centimeters. But let the young compete in height. The largest tree on the planet is the giant sequoiadendron giganteum, called General Sherman.

Sequoidendron General Sherman - the largest living organism on planet Earth

Sequoiadendron General Sherman is the largest living organism on planet Earth. According to scientists, this outstanding mammoth tree is almost 2700 years old. And although he is far from the tallest tree in the world (his height is only 83.8 meters), General Sherman is the largest living organism on our planet. Well, not counting the Pando Grove (Utah, USA) - a clonal colony of aspen poplar, whose total weight is six thousand tons. Although it is a grove, it is considered a single organism. The weight of General Sherman is 1900 tons, the volume of wood is 1487 cubic meters, and the trunk diameter is 7.7 meters (at a height of 1.5 meters). For comparison: the volume of wood of the tall but “skinny” Hyperion is only 502 cubic meters. No matter how tall the sequoias are, there is a limit to their growth. And this limit, surprisingly, is set by the laws of physics. Scientists have calculated that the growth of any tree on our planet cannot exceed 120-130 meters. The forces of gravity and friction of water against the pores of the wood will prevent you from growing higher.

Redwoods and people

The authors of the famous “Golden Calf” Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov wrote in “One-Storey America” that “Americans are extremely practical people. Near the Sherman there is a sign that states with the greatest accuracy that forty houses can be built from this one tree, with five rooms in each house.”

Loggers and redwoods. Photo from the site https://gravgrav.com Lumberjacks and redwoods. Photo from gravgrav.com Sequoias are one of the oldest trees on the ground. They grew widely on our planet back in Cretaceous period(145 million years ago). glacial period significantly reduced redwood forests in North America, and the remaining ones were thoroughly thinned out by the inhabitants of the New World: of course, they cut down one tree and built a whole one cottage village. Now there are only three dozen groves of these giants left - in Northern California on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Sequoiadendron seedling. Photo from the site https://4seed.jimdo.com Sequoiadendron seedling. Photo from the site 4seed.jimdo.com For those who love conifers and are interested in giants, you can have a real sequoiadendron in your garden. It is possible to grow this relict plant from seeds or buy a ready-made seedling.

Everyone has heard about this tree, but few manage to admire it. Despite its enormous popularity, its distribution is limited for a number of reasons. Sequoia is a tree that belongs to the genus of conifers, the cypress family, and the subfamily sequoioideae. Consists of two species: giant and evergreen sequoia. Both of these species grow in North America on the Pacific coast.

Scientists are sure that in the distant past this amazing plant inhabited everything North hemisphere of our planet. Yours modern name The tree was not received immediately: the British and Americans tried to immortalize their heroes in it. Then a compromise was reached: it was decided to name the tree in honor of the leader of the Cherokee tribe - Sequoyah, who, ironically, called on his people to fight against both the British and the Americans.

Evergreen and tallest

Today this plant grows only in a small area in Northern California and Southern Oregon, a narrow coastal strip. Evergreen sequoia- a tree that is the tallest existing on Earth in our time. Usually its height ranges from 60 to 90 meters, but there were also specimens taller than 100 m, and one of them even reached 113 meters. Most of them grow in Redwood National Park, on the mountain slopes facing the ocean and foothill valleys.

The sequoia trunk has a very thick and fibrous bark. While the plant is young, it branches along the entire length of the trunk, but with age, the lower branches are lost, and only a dense crown is formed at the top. The undergrowth in such a forest develops poorly due to lack of lighting. Despite the fact that an adult tree produces a lot of seeds, only a small part of them germinates, and even this part is very difficult - there is not enough sunlight. Due to such slow reproduction, the sequoia (the tree was previously intensively cut down) was on the verge of extinction. Today, the main places where this grows are taken under protection, and their barbaric felling has been stopped.

The territory of this huge North American reserve is the main repository of what is rightfully considered the greatest living organism. In terms of size and life expectancy, there are no equals in nature. The existence of the giant sequoia is calculated not in tens or even hundreds of years, but in millennia - it can live up to 4000 years. over such a long period it grows in height up to 95 meters, and in diameter it grows to 10 meters or more. - this is the name of sequoia - a tree (its photo has gone around the whole world), which has already lived for 4000 years and continues to grow, today its weight is 2995796 kg.

Some interesting facts

The tallest tree growing today is the Stratospheric Giant. It is located in Redwood National Park. In 2002, its height was 112.56 m.

The tallest tree on Earth was the Dyerville Giant. When it collapsed, it was possible to determine that its height was 113.4 m, and it lived for about 1600 years.

Currently, 15 sequoias have a height of more than 110 meters, and 47 trees are already approaching the 105 m mark. So, perhaps, the Dyerville Giant's record will be broken. They say that in 1912 a sequoia tree with a height of 115.8 m was cut down. But this fact has not been proven.

The most voluminous sequoia is a tree named General Sherman. Its volume has already exceeded 1487 cubic meters. m. They claim that in 1926 a tree with a volume of 1794 cubic meters was cut down. m. But it is no longer possible to verify this.