The thickest tree The largest trees in the world

This is a list of the 10 tallest trees that grow in the United States. The exact location of the giants is kept secret so that the influx of tourists does not upset the balance of the ecosystem and prevent trees from growing further.

Mendocino tree - 112.20 m, USA

View: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Montgomery Woods, California, USA
Diameter: 4.19 m
Between December 1996 and August 2000, this was the most tall tree in the world, it was discovered in the city of Montgomery Woods and named the Mendocino Tree. The tree is one of dozens of such tall trees in the grove, and has never been specifically declared the largest for protection purposes. The previously highly publicized candidates for the world's tallest tree have been hit hard by tourists.

Paradox - 112.56 m, USA

Species: Sequoia sempervirens

Diameter: 3.90 m

Rockefeller - 112.60 m, USA

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Humboldt, California, USA
Diameter: exact diameter unknown

Lauralin - 112.62 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Humboldt, South Fork Eel River, California, USA
Diameter: 4.54 m

Orion - 112.63 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Redwoods, California, USA
Diameter: 4.33 m

National Geographic Society - 112.71 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Redwood Creek, California, USA
Diameter: 4.39 m
The fifth tallest tree in the world is located in Redwood Creek. From 1994, after it was found, it became the tallest tree in the world until 1995.

Giant of the Stratosphere - 113.11 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Humboldt, Rockefeller Forest, California, USA
Diameter: 5.18 m
The Stratospheric Giant was once the tallest tree in the world. It was opened in July 2000 in the Humboldt National Park, when first measured in 2000, the height of the tree was 112.34 meters and it continues to grow, its height of 113.11 m was recorded in 2010. The tree is surrounded by a large number of trees of almost the same size. To avoid damage from tourism, the exact location of the tree has not been disclosed to the public.

Icarus - 113.14 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens

Diameter: 3.78 m
Discovered July 1, 2006.

Helios - 114.58 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Redwoods, Redwood Creek tributary, California, USA
Diameter: 4.96 m
Helios is the tallest tree in the world from June 1, 2006 to August 25, 2006. The tree lost its title when the foresters found Hyperion on the other side of Redwood Creek.

Pictured, Richard Preston and his daughter climb a tree in Humboldt Park.

Hyperion - 115.61 m

Species: Sequoia sempervirens
Location: Redwoods, Redwood Creek tributary, California, USA
Diameter: 4.84 m
Hyperion was discovered on August 25, 2006 by naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. The tree was measured to be 115.55 meters tall. The tree was found in a remote area of ​​Redwood National and State Parks acquired in 1978. The exact location in the tree has not been revealed to the public, for fear that tourist traffic could disrupt the tree's ecosystem of life. The area of ​​the tree is estimated at 502 square meters, and its approximate age is 700 - 800 years.

Incredible Facts

If you have watched the movie Avatar, then you must have been impressed by the forests of Pandora. But to see the most fantastic trees, you do not have to go on an intergalactic journey.

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

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

1. giant sequoia"General Sherman"

Giant sequoias that grow in Sierra Nevada in California are considered the largest trees in terms of volume. The largest tree is General Sherman" in Sequoia National Park, whose height reaches 83 m, the volume is about 1.486 cubic meters. m, and weight more than 6000 tons. The tree is thought to be somewhere between 2300 and 2700 years old, and every year the tree gains as much wood as a normal 18 meter tree contains. It is a true natural masterpiece and the greatest living organism on earth.

2. Aspen poplar: Pando

pando or Trembling Giant, located in Utah, USA, is an amazing massive colony of wasp trees spread over 100 acres of Utah. Almost all of 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 is about 130 years old, the whole body is already about 80,000 years old.

3. Mexican Taxodium: Thule Tree

The Tule tree is a particularly large tree of the species Taxodium mexican which is near the city Oaxaca in Mexico. At this tree the largest girth of the trunk(58 m) and a diameter of the trunk, which is 11.5 m. They say that Tule tree so fat that you don't hug it, it hugs you.

It is believed that the tree is already about 2000 years old. For a while, detractors claimed that in fact there were three trees disguised here, but a thorough DNA analysis confirmed that this is actually one beautiful tree.

In 1994, the tree was under threat: the leaves became painfully 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 that caused the Tule tree to suffer 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

Tree of Life in Bahrain it the loneliest tree in the world. The mesquite tree is located on the very high point the barren desert of Bahrain, hundreds of kilometers from other natural trees. It is believed that its roots stretch for several tens of meters to the 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 does not consist in its size, age or shape, although it is quite large and very beautiful. The most amazing thing is that it stands alone in the barren desert at the highest point in Bahrain, in an area where there is absolutely no water. In a place where nothing seemed to survive, this tree seems to radiate life itself. People come here in droves locals It is believed that the tree stands on the site of the Garden of Eden.

5. Wollemia

Despite its uniqueness and beauty, interesting qualities Wollemia hidden not in appearance, but in its history.

Wollemia, growing in Australia, is a real living dinosaur. oldest fossil tree Wollemia dated to 200 million years ago. When, in 1994, scientists suddenly discovered living tree Wollemia they were just dumbfounded.

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

6. Cashew Tree Piranji

This famous tree 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 a genetic mutation that allowed it to take up so much space. Unlike a normal cashew tree, when the branches of the tree piranji touch the ground, it takes root and continues to grow.

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

7. Tenere Tree

The Tenere tree is mentioned in this list because it no longer exists. A lone acacia growing in the Sahara desert in Niger, Africa, which was over 300 years old, was the only tree within a radius of about 400 km. It was the only tree left of the vast forest that had been swallowed up by the merciless desert. When the scientists dug a hole next to the tree, they found that its roots descended up to 36m below the water table.

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

8. Banyan: Mahabodhi tree

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

One of the most famous types of banyan tree called ficus sacred or bo tree is mahabodhi tree in Anuradhapura, in Sri Lanka. It is said that the tree was grown from a cutting of a real tree, under which Buddha attained enlightenment in the 6th century BC

Being planted in 288 BC, it is the oldest tree in the world, planted by a person with the exact planting date.

9. Baobab

Baobab is considered to be the birthplace of Madagascar, it is also common in Africa and Australia. Baobab trees are the oldest forms of life on the African mainland, and many of those still standing today date back to Roman times.

Amazing baobab or " monkey breadfruit" can grow up to 30 m high and 11 m wide. Most of the year they remain without leaves . characteristic feature baobab is their pot-bellied trunk, which serves as a reservoir of water. baobab tree can hold up to 120,000 liters of water to survive severe drought conditions. Some trunks are so big that people live inside the tree.

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

10. Dragon Tree

Dragon tree in Icod de los Vinos in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, is a unique representative. It is believed that it is between 650 and 1500 years old, but experts find it difficult to draw accurate conclusions, since it does not have one trunk. He rather consists of many small trunks, which hold on to each other as they grow upwards.

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

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

Sequoia To tell the truth, the trees themselves are, of course, unaware of their participation in such a contest. Looking for the tallest, fattest, oldest growing in extreme conditions, and other things people do. Let's get acquainted closer with the world of dendro-giants.

tree giants

There are not so many varieties of trees, whose height reaches sixty or more meters, on our planet. Botanists refer to them as common spruce and mountain pine, they grow up to 60-70 meters. Lawson's false cypress, known to many gardeners as Lawson's cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), in vivo can reach eighty meters in height. Fir: noble, Nordman, and also Douglas, 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 the Douglas Fir living today is nicknamed "Doerner Fir", its height is 99.4 meters. The regal eucalyptus, which can grow more than a hundred meters, also has an impressive size.

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

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

Sequoiadendrons - mammoth trees

Sequoiadendrons - mammoth trees

General Sherman, Hyperion and Helios

As mentioned above, the evergreen sequoia named Hyperion is currently recognized as the tallest tree on Earth. The height of a tree growing in northern California in national park Redwood, is 115.61 meters, the diameter of the trunk at the level of 1.5 meters is 4.84 meters. The age of the giant is about eight hundred years. Hyperion was “unlucky”: a woodpecker damaged his top, so the growth of the giant slowed down. Perhaps, very soon he will have to give way 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. Most a big tree on the planet is a giant sequoiadendron (Sequoiadendron giganteum), called General Sherman.

Sequoydendron General Sherman - the largest living organism on planet Earth

Sequoiadendron General Sherman - the largest living organism on planet Earth This outstanding mammoth tree, according to scientists, 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 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 to be a single organism. The weight of General Sherman is 1900 tons, the volume of wood is 1487 cubic meters, and the diameter of the trunk is 7.7 meters (at a height of 1.5 meters). For comparison: the volume of wood of a 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 wood will prevent it from growing higher.

Sequoias and people

The authors of the famous "Golden Calf" Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov wrote in "One-Story America" ​​that "Americans are extremely practical people. There is a sign near the Sherman, where it is reported with the greatest accuracy that forty houses can be built from this tree alone, with five rooms in each house.

Lumberjacks and sequoias. Photo from https://gravgrav.com Lumberjacks and sequoias. Photo courtesy of gravgrav.com Sequoias are one of the oldest trees on earth. They grew widely on our planet back in Cretaceous(145 million years ago). ice Age greatly reduced redwood forests in North America, and the rest were thoroughly thinned out by the inhabitants of the New World: still, he cut down one tree and built a whole cottage village. Now only three dozen groves of these giants remain - 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 4seed.jimdo.com For those who love conifers and are interested in giants, you can get a real sequoiadendron in your area. it relic plant really grow from seeds or buy a ready-made seedling.

The Tule Tree (Spanish: Arbol del Tule / Árbol del Tule) grows in the middle of the city of Santa Maria del Tule in Mexico. Thule - the thickest tree in existence in the world. The diameter of the trunk of this tree is 14 meters, the circumference of the trunk is 42 meters. Initially, you can decide that Thule is a few trunks fused together different trees, however DNA tests have shown it to be a single tree.

It takes at least 30 people holding hands to hug the Thule tree. The shadow of a tree can cover 500 people. The height of the tree is about 40 meters, and the weight is 636 tons.

The legend of the Zapotecs (an Indian people in Mexico) says that the Thule tree was planted 1400 years ago by Pechocha, the priest of the Aztec wind god Ehecatl. Scientists confirm that the age of the tree is about the same as the Indian legend says. Sometimes the antiquity of a tree is estimated at 3,000 or even 6,000 years.

Local residents take care of the famous tree, watering it and trimming branches, and on the second Monday of October, the city celebrates a holiday in honor of the Tule tree.

In 2001, the Tule tree was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Thule means "sacred tree". Sometimes it is also called the "Tree of Life" because of the figures of animals (lion, elephant, crocodile, etc.), which can be seen on the trunk if desired.

Crocodile:

Perhaps it was the Tule tree that inspired the creators in the state of Florida (USA).

Nature loves to give humanity a variety of champions from the world of animals and plants. But who became the winner in the nomination "the widest tree in the world" we will find out now!
We note right away that this honorary title can be worn immediately " three fat men».

The first of these is African baobab , the width in diameter of which reaches 10 meters. Despite the fact that the plant itself is huge, this mainly concerns the width of the trunk - baobabs, as a rule, hardly reach a couple of tens of meters in height, not that.
Interestingly, in winter period the baobab is "losing weight" a little. Due to the drought that is characteristic of the places where it grows, the tree begins to use up its own moisture supply, shedding not only foliage, but also decreasing in size. In the rest of the year, the baobab quietly lives its own life and even blooms for several months a year. The flowers of such a "fat man" are also far from small - 20 centimeters in diameter, and very beautiful.

European chestnut is also one of the most broad trees in the world. Its largest representative grew in Sicily on Mount Etna, called Chestnut hundreds of horses and reached more than 57 meters of trunk circumference. By the way, not only is the chestnut of hundreds of horses the widest chestnut in the world, but it is also the oldest chestnut.

These trees, by the way, are known far beyond the borders of Europe. Many people like to eat their sweet fried fruits. Moreover, such chestnuts are used as a filling for sweets, cookies and marshmallows.

And the last contender for the title of the thickest tree is mexican cypress. The "widest" representative has the name "Tule Tree" and a trunk diameter of 11.62 meters.

Initially, it was believed that these were several trees fused together, since appearance the trunk had certain irregularities. However, after conducting DNA tests, it became clear that this is a single tree. By the way, the Tule Tree is listed world heritage UNESCO.