This fantastic tree was a lucky find in the first half of 2021.

This tallest Sitka spruce was discovered by Michael Taylor and Tressa Gibbard and sometime later repeatedly measured together with Steve Sillett.

This tree grows among coast redwoods and, most likely, was forced to outperform these champions in the tree world. The diameter of the trunk at breast height is 2.73 m – the tree is incredibly slender! It is estimated that its age is 223 ± 33 years.

References

1. Tressa Gibbard, Finding the Elusive 100m Non-Redwood With Michael Taylor and Steve Sillett. The Sugar Pine Foundation. Accessed on 26 June 2022.
2. M. W. Taylor, New 100 m tree species confirmed!, 3 July 2021. Native Tree Society BBS. Accessed on 26 June 2022.

The 100.2 m tall Sitka Spruce is included in the following articles:

It is hard to believe that this fantastic cypress tree is THAT high. After all, the height of 94.6 m puts the tree in the league of the top 10 world’s tallest trees.

The cypress of Bay Langdra Ney grows near the road at the height of 2 360 m. This is a valley but the cypress stands a bit out from the forest and there are no trees of comparable height near it. A visitor can admire and take fine images of the giant tree in its full height. Other supertall trees of the world are hidden among other trees, which protect them from storms.

In the Google Earth image, the shadow of the tree is some 70 – 75 m long. Shadows of the nearby 3-floor houses with steep roofs are some 5-6 m long, thus the length of the tree shadow may hint that it is taller than these 70-75 meters.

The top of the cypress is dead and it is possible that at this moment it is not as high.

The tree has an enormous hollow. Locals have carefully filled it with stone and concrete masonry. The tree is adorned with colorful prayer flags.

What species of cypress it is?

Scientists still discuss the taxonomy of cypress trees in this region. Some specialists would see this cypress tree as Weeping Himalayan cypress (Cupressus himalaica Silba 1987) or Tsenden (Cupressus torulosa Carrière 1855).

Sometimes, to make the discussion even more confusing, there are involved also Cupressus tortulosa (Griffith 1854) and Cupressus cashmeriana (Royle ex Carrière 1867) – another species.

Legends about the tree

Cypresses are national trees of Bhutan and every large cypress (in fact – every large tree) here is a sacred and much-revered tree.

The life of this giant tree is closely linked to a very significant person in the history of Buddhism – Guru Padmasambhava or Guru Rinpoche (Guru Rimpoche) (8th century AD). Padmasambhava is seen as the Second Buddha and a guardian spirit of Bhutan.

Guru escaped from Tibet on the back of a tigress and stayed in a remote cave high in the cliffs of Paro valley – now there is Paro Taktsang Monastery. Bhutanese people believe that the giant cypress near Kathok Yoesel Samtenling Monastery is a walking stick of Guru Rimpoche. The fork closer to the top of the tree is a place where the palm of Guru Rimpoche rested when the tree was a small walking stick.

Guru planted his stick here and prayed for it to grow into a large cypress tree. If it would release roots, Guru would hide here relics. The prayers helped and the stick started to grow.

Thus locals believe that in the cypress are hidden invaluable relics: Ters, a kind of Dharma treasures. The blessings of these relics are equivalent to five monasteries (an interesting unit of measurement!). But, of course, no one should touch these relics before the right time. And the right time will come when the world will need additional Buddhist teachings. Enlightened people – Tertons – will make these discoveries.

The tree is the center of a yearly festivity on the 15th day of the 8th Bhutanese month – “Tsenden teschu”.

References

1. Historically Significant Trees of Bhutan. Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environmental Research. 2018.
2. Bay Yul Langdra Nye (སྦས་ཡུལ་གླང་བྲག་གནས) in Wangduephordang. Phub Dorji Wang. February 20, 2019. Last accessed in 7 December 2019.

Cypress tree near Bay Langdra Ney is included in the following articles:

Tallest tree species

We have little doubt that coast redwood is the tallest tree species on Earth now. This might be a lucky (for coast redwood) coincidence – in recent past, there were coast Douglas firs (in the United States and Canada) and eucalypti (in Australia) of comparable height and possibly higher, but these trees were ruthlessly cut. Nowadays we know about many hundreds of coast redwoods exceeding the height of 100 m… and only one tree of other species – yellow meranti in Sabah exceeds the height of 100 m.

Recent discovery

The year 2006 was lucky – there were discovered three trees taller than the former world record holder – Stratosphere Giant (113.11 m tall in late 2009). The most successful find was on August 25 when naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor found the first known living tree on Earth exceeding 115 m height – its height then was 115.72 m. Hyperion tree is in good shape and seems still to be growing up although measurements from 2017 are slightly more impressive – height is 115.85 m (380.08 ft) and diameter – 4.84 m (15.87 ft) (2).

Secret location

Traditionally the exact locations of this and many other tall trees (as well as caves and many other valuable natural landmarks) in the Western United States are not disclosed. This is done to avoid the temptation to “develop” this part of the national park or simply – to prevent disturbance to the forest by the crowds of excited nature lovers wading towards the tree. It is only known that it takes an arduous walk to reach this remote location in Redwood National Park.

Although part of the scientific community is not happy with this stance (the location of the tree is not disclosed even in scientific publications), there are many sad cases when sensitive information from deeply scientific publications easily becomes VERY public. But, of course, heated debates about ethics in science and personal intrigues form the prosaic side of the lives of scientists. The magnificent Hyperion stands tall above this.

Until 2013 there were few traces of human activity around the (then) world’s tallest known tree. But on the visit in 2015 and later, there was noticed that more people have found this tree. The secret to a large extent still holds even after 13 years since the discovery, but, it seems, more and more people know the path to the tree.

There exist taller trees

It is known that in 2013 there was discovered even taller coast redwood and later – taller. The height of record trees is approaching 119 m!!! But currently, these trees are not announced to the public (2). An interesting fact is that these trees were not “noticed” by the LiDAR equipment – although measurements were made in these locations. Discovery was made with other, unannounced methods.

References

1. Pictures of Hyperion on Landmarktrees.com, 17 August 2010, was accessed on December 18, 2010
2. Hyperion Coast Redwood, Coast Redwood Adventures, last accessed on 3 December 2019. (images!)

Hyperion tree is included in the following list:

Danum Valley

Danum Valley Conservation Area was established in 1995 to protect the lush rainforest of the eastern Sabah – one of the oldest forests in the world, existing in this place for more than 130 million years! Most of this forest is a totally pristine natural area with very high species diversity.

Mr. Gregory Asner from the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University discovered some 50 trees with a height of over 90 m in Danum Valley in 2016 (or in 2014).

For a while the title of the tallest known tree in tropics went to another Shorea faguetiana tree not too far from the current record-holder – this is a 94.1 m tall giant!

New world record

A team of researchers from the Universities of Nottingham and Oxford in cooperation with the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership announced the discovery of the new world’s tallest tropical tree – a 100.8 m tall giant. This tree was named simply Menara – “tower” in the Malay language.

The tree was climbed by the now legendary arborist and tree-climber Unding Jami (Jamiluddin bin Jami) who in 2016 climbed the former world’s tallest tropical tree in Maliau Basin (a bit more than 90 m tall!). He climbed the new world record holder (among tropical trees) on 6th January 2019 – first shooting the climbing line to an 86 m high (!) branch and then climbing some 3 hours to the top of the tree.

The height of this tree might be close to the maximum theoretical possibilities of biological systems of flowering plants – higher plants simply can not sustain themselves. Nevertheless, specialists are not convinced that this is the tallest tree even in Danum Valley. Thus – let’s wait for new, exciting discoveries! But: don’t expect that these trees would be much taller.

Maximums height of flowering plants?

Discoverers of the tree consider that Menara is close to the maximum theoretically possible height of flowering plants (3.). The tree is close to the limit of maximum height to keep it from breaking under moderate wind speeds. Here helps the location on a steep slope near its bottom, which shields it from winds. Thus very tallest trees of such composition can grow only in such shielded locations. Close to the limits is also the system of metabolism in the tree: there are hydraulic constraints to the vessels transporting the sugars and other substances. Even slight droughts would kill such a very tall tree.

The estimated biomass of the tree is 81,500 kg, where 95% is in the trunk. The tree grows on a very steep slope but is amazingly straight and, at the same time, very slender. Its diameter above the buttress is only 212 cm – amazing for such a tall trunk!

But… is it that high?

Mr. Brett Mifsud – a teacher and well-known Australian tree enthusiast and environmentalist – warns: not so fast! (2.) The height of 100.8 m is measured to the lowest point of the buttresses (3.). The high point was at 96.26 m. Thus the correctly measured height of the tree should be 98.53 m or even 97.58 m.

This creates a tricky situation. Three more tree species of the world now compete for the title of the 2nd tallest tree:

• Eucalyptus regnans: Centurion in Tasmania, Australia. The tape measurement shows a height of 99.82 m (2017). But multiple measurements with a laser rangefinder in 2019 show that the tree is 100.5 or even 101 m tall!
• Picea sitchensis: 100.2 m tall Sitka Spruce in the northern part of California, United States. The tree was discovered in the early 2021 and thorough measurements were made.
• Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii: Doerner Fir in Oregon, United States. The last known measurement was in 2011 when the tree was 99.76 m tall. Earlier it exceeded the height of 100 m (100.3 m), but the top has died. There are several more trees with a very similar height (and growing) and local enthusiasts consider that a taller one (100+ meters) will be discovered sooner or later.

References

1. Mary Gagen, The world’s tallest known tropical tree has been found—and climbed, National Geographic, April 3, 2019. Accessed on 5th April, 2019.
2. Victoria’s Giant Trees, July, 2019. Accessed on 4th December, 2019.
3. Alexander Shenkin et al.. The World’s Tallest Tropical Tree in Three Dimensions. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 18 June 2019. doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2019.00032

Menara is included in the following articles:

This giant tree was discovered in 1989 by Hank Wiliams and first measured two years later. It has been measured several times with slightly different results from 99.4 to 100.3 m. The result which exceeded the 100 m mark, was measured when the tree was a bit taller and its top was still there.

One of the more recent measurements was done in 2008 by three climbers (Brian French, Will Koomjian, Sean O’Connor) from Ascending the Giants of Portland – they climbed the tree up to the top and measured it with tape – it was 99.7 m tall. In 2011 there was made one more measurement – the result was 99.75 m (3). The tree stands on a slope and there has been calculated the average level at its base.

The upper 15 m of this giant tree are almost dead. Due to this Doerner Fir step by step decreases in height, but it is expected that the circumference and volume of timber will gradually increase.

In the tree have been spotted clouded salamanders (Aneides ferreus) – rare amphibians which seem to be living in trees.

Initially the tree was named Brummit Fir – after the stream near it. Later though it got the name of Ray Doerner, Douglas County Commissioner.

Bureau of Land Management has arranged a special Doerner Fir Trail, leading through a primeval forest (called also cathedral forests) of Oregon’s Coast Ranges.

There is a probability that in remote valleys of Oregon might be found a taller coast Douglas fir.

As the top of Doerner Fir is dying away, it is highly possible that there is a new height champion in the species. In 2021 Michael Taylor and Steve Sillett reported a find of 99.5 m tall coast Douglas fir in Olympic National Park (5). This new find has a healthy top and very well might exceed the 100 m mark one day!

References

1. Terry Richard, Doerner Fir rises 327 feet into the Coos County heavens, March 27 2010, accessed on December 18, 2010
2. Brummit Fir, Ascending Giants, accessed on December 18 2010. Images of the climb in 2008!
3. Doerner Fir | Tallest Douglas Fir, Coast Redwood Adventures, accessed on December 23 2016.
4. rephaim23, Tallest Douglas Fir in America. Posted on November 12, 2012. Accessed on December 26 2016.
5. Tressa Gibbard, Michael Taylor & Steve Sillett Discover World’s 10 Tallest Douglas-firs, The Sugar Pine Foundation. Accessed on June 26 2022.

Doerner Fir is included in the following articles:

Redwood Mountain Grove is the largest stand of this tree, its area is 1,240 ha. It is assessed that here grow some 15,800 sequoias. Most prominent sequoias have their own names and in Redwood Mountain Grove are located two such named trees which belong to the 25 largest trees by volume in the world – The Hart Tree and Roosevelt Tree.

Here is located one of the tallest known sequoias – it was discovered in July 1998 and measured in August 1998 by Michael Taylor, the height then was 94.9 m. In July 2005 there was done repeated measurement by redwood researcher Steve Sillett – the result was exactly the same.

The main trunk of this tree was killed by a fire at the height of 74.4 m and there grew new trunks, reaching current height.

This tree has not received any specific name and its exact location is not given in the available works. Close to it grow several slightly lower sequoias.

This was considered to be the tallest giant sequoia in the world but in 2013 there was reported an even taller tree – 95.8 m tall tree, here named: Tallest Giant Sequoia in Converse Basin.

There have been reports about higher – up to 97.8 m tall sequoias and even (wrong) assumptions that these trees could reach 133 m height ("Father of the Forest" in Calaveras Grove mentioned by James M.Hutchings, Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California in 1862).

References

1. Landmarktrees, Tallest Giant Sequoia.
2. Humboldt State University, Institute for Redwood Ecology, Photo Tour: Giant Sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, accessed in the 22nd December 2010. Images!

Grove of giant sequoias in Converse Basin Giant belongs to the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Most of the giant sequoias were cut here one century ago but some 60 – 100 large trees remain but most of the trees are young sequoias. The most prominent sequoia here is the giant Boole Tree.

The newly discovered tallest sequoia was was reported by the well-known local researcher Michael Taylor in 2013. The height measurement of this tree was made with a laser rangefinder. Thus it surpassed the tallest known sequoia – the 94.9 m tall Tallest Giant Sequoia in Redwood Mountain Grove (also unofficial name).

Sequoia has not received any specific name and its exact location is not given in the available works.

There have been reports about higher – up to 97.8 m tall sequoias and even (wrong) assumptions that Sequoiadendron giganteum could reach 133 m height ("Father of the Forest" in Calaveras Grove mentioned by James M.Hutchings, Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California in 1862).

References

1. Monumental Trees, Giant sequoia in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, accessed on the 23nd December 2016.

Tallest Giant Sequoia in Converse Basin is included in the following articles:

Saving the giant trees

A group of enormous, incredibly tall trees in the forest some 30 km north from Fingal is known for many decades. There was an attempt to cut the trees already in the 1940s – 1950s – but loggers rated that they will not get the logs out and it is not worth spending time on this.

In the 1970s there was the next attempt to cut the trees. Loggers built a road coming close to the giant trees and local forester Des Howe was assessing the potential gain from the cut. Forester was surprised at the incredible height of several trees – first measurements witnessed that one tree is 91 m tall. After some discussions, it was decided to save the trees and in 1977 there was created Evercreech Forest Reserve specifically for the protection of this group of eucalypts.

Tourist attraction

Des Howes was convinced that these trees are white gums (many species of eucalypts are called white gums – thus here we will use another name – manna gum). This was a botanical surprise – manna gum is common, for the most part, comparatively small tree. Only samples from the trees convinced botanists that there exists supertall white gum. Manna gum has a very light color of the trunk – thus the largest four or three trees have been nicknamed – White Knights.

Evercreech Forest Reserve is a beautiful natural forest. A well equipped walking track leads up to the trees – may be the trail is too much equipped because the tallest tree is enclosed in a boardwalk like a hand in handcuffs.

Tourism promoters constantly mention that eucalypts in this reserve exceed 90 m and even 100 m height. Exact measurement though tells a different story – the tallest tree is 91.3 m tall. It is estimated to be more than 300 years old, the circumference is 11 m.

The tree lately (2016) is in rather a bad shape and it looks that it is dying. (3.)

References

1. Giant Trees. Tasmania’s world class giants. Former website.
2. The excellent, excellent Tasmanian Plants page by David Tng in Flickr. Last visited in 20.12.10.
3. Tasmanie. En Quête d’Arbres. Last visited in 4.12.19.

Sir Vim is included in the following list:

Forests in Tasmania contain some of the highest, mightiest and also oldest trees of the world.

Discovery of the tallest eucalyptus tree

Any tree in the Tasmanian state forest, which exceeds the fantastic 85-meter height and/ or 280 cubic meters of volume, has to be registered and protected (5.).

These rules are implemented by the government agency “Sustainable Timber Tasmania” which earlier was named “Forestry Tasmania”. Like most of the world’s state forestries, Sustainable Timber Tasmania has to act as a protector of the forest and at the same time: get profit out of the forest.

In August 2008 Forestry Tasmania staff were using their state-of-the-art airborne equipment for the mapping and assessment of the values of commercial forests in the Arve River basin. This was a comparatively early use of LiDAR laser equipment (light detection and ranging) for 3D mapping of the land surface. When mapping a forest, LiDAR shows both the surface of trees and land level thus helping to assess the amount of wood in between.

Later, when looking through the data collected by LiDAR, employees Mayo Kajitani and David Mannes noticed two previously unknown very tall trees standing close together. Both trees exceeded the height of 85 meters and one was even some 99 meters high. As LiDAR tends to underestimate tree height, foresters thought that the tree might be even 101 meters high.

This was a sensation: nowadays only coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) in California, as well as yellow meranti in Sabah (Malaysia) (discovered in 2019) exceed 100-meter height. One more tree species – coast Douglas fir has a very similar height – 99.75 m.

Australia’s historical record trees

Many reports tell about taller eucalypts from earlier times in Victoria. Some even claim heights that exceed 150 meters but most of these reports are not credible enough.

Genus of eucalypts include approximately 700 species and eucalypts belong to the largest trees of planet in any respect – girth of largest trees might exceed 20 metres and the volume of trunk – 350 m³.

Still, specialists consider that eucalypts theoretically can exceed even 110-meter height. Maximum historical heights of trees in Tasmania are less impressive: two blue gums (E.globulus) in 1906 were 101 meters high.

Before the discovery of 2008 the tallest eucalyptus tree and the tallest tree in Australia was swamp gum (Eucalyptus regnans) “Icarus Dream” in Andromeda Reserve, Tasmania. The measured height of this tree in 2005 was the fantastic 97 m. This tree has a dead top and, most likely, is less tall by now.

Ground measurements of Centurion tree

Soon after foresters inspected both trees from the ground with laser rangefinders. Both of them turned out to be swamp gums (Eucalyptus regnans).

The top of the highest tree was hidden in the canopy and only approximate measurements were possible. They assumed that the tree is at least 101 meters high, its age is around 400 years, (4.) the diameter was 4.05 meters (5.).

David Mannes later explained that he was saving the name “Centurion” for the 100th giant tree of Tasmania but he never expected that the hundredth tree would also exceed 100 meters in height. This name has a root "centum" meaning in Latin "hundred".

The other giant tree was named Triarius, 86.5 meters tall and with a diameter of 3.90 m (1.).

Later tree climbers Greenwood and Mifsud (1.) made more exact measurements. The results caused some disappointment: Centurion tree was below the 100-meter height: 99.6 meters. Later measurements slightly increased the height of the tree – 99.8 m and in 2016 again a bit less – 99.67 m. Then in March 2017, the next measurement gave a height of 99.82 m (8.).

Tree climbers also reported that the crown is healthy and is resprouting from the broken top, thus some time ago it was some 103 meters high.

One more measurement (in fact, 300 measurements) with a laser rangefinder in December 2018 (The Tree Projects and Giant Tree Expeditions) gave a result of 100.5. In April 2019 Mr. Brett Mifsud made additional measurements with laser equipment from the ground and his results gave an estimated height of 101 m! (10.)

But… official registration of this record needs a measurement with tape. Wondermondo is waiting for the news…

Troubled forest

Discovered forest giants were located in a non-protected state forest but immediately were included in the list of protected trees.

This is a lucky coincidence that Centurion has survived. Wildfires in 1934 spared just a few older trees in this area and passed on the west side. In 1950 there was logging nearby and at that time this giant tree would not be spared. In 1966 and 1967 the forest close nearby was deliberately burned for later regeneration, in 1967 this turned into furious, devastating fires. This time fire passed the tree on the east side (5.).

These fires were a reason why the forest around the giants was not old-growth and thus – not protected. It was not expected to find any tall trees in this area.

Unfortunately, the beautiful forest has been cut close to the tree – there is a clear-cut some 200 m from the Centurion.

The tree was in great danger once more in January 2019, during a great forest fire. It suffered burns but seems to live. (9.)

References

1. Giant Trees. Tasmania’s world class giants.
2. New series of Going Bush screens Sundays at 5.30pm Forestry Tasmania. Accessed 03.01.10.
3. The world’s tallest hardwood tree. Australian Forest Grower, winter 2009. Accessed 03.01.10.
4. Technology aids in record-breaking tree discovery. International Forest Industries, August 2009. Accessed 03.01.10.
5. Welcome to the Centurion! Forestry Tasmania, 10 Oct 2008. Accessed 03.01.10.
6. New series of Going Bush screens Sundays at 5.30pm Forestry Tasmania. Accessed 03.01.10.
7. Facebook report from The Tree Projects, 10.12.2018. Accessed 09.05.19.
8. Australia’s Champion Trees, National Register of Big Trees. Accessed on 4th July 2019.
9. Centurion still standing tall, press release by Sustainable Timber Tasmania, 22.02.2019. Accessed on 3rd December 2019.
10. native Tree Society BBS Forum. Accessed on 4th December 2019.

Centurion tree is included in the following articles and lists: