The tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), named Hyperion after a person in Greek mythology.
He is no less than 115.55 m (379.1 feet) tall! This enormous tree was discovered only in August 2006 in a remote part of the Redwood National Park, California by naturalists
Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. Their first preliminary measurements were done with professional laser measurement equipment based on goniometry.
Gentle giants - Redwood trees are also known as Sequoia and are native species to the Southern West Coast of California.
In September 2006 the tree was remeasured by Steve Sillett. This was done in the most accurate way: he climbed to the top of the tree to drop a tape from there straight to the ground. This tape drop was filmed for National Geographic.
With its relatively slender silhouette this tree can grow even up to 20 m or 60 ft taller than the tallest giant sequoias, that are nevertheless the biggest trees in the world, when looking at the volume of the trunk. The tallest known living tree, named Hyperion, is
115.55 m or 379.1 ft (measured in 2006) tall! This gets close to 120 to 130 m, that, according to a 2004 biological study, is the maximum attainable height of a tree.
On first sight, the needles of the coast redwood do not resemble those of the giant sequoia: they are bigger and flat, much like that of a yew. The crown is conical just like the one of the giant redwood, with an almost equally massive trunk with a reddish brown, soft bark. The egg shaped cones are smaller
(2 to 3 cm). In contrast to most other conifers, the coast redwood starts to grow again after being cut. The maximum age is probably around 2500 years.
Threatened by logging companies
This quickly growing tree has straight trunks and the quality of the wood is excellent, which resulted in heavy - and ongoing - loggings. The wood of Sequoia sempervirens has been and is extensively used in construction. About 96% of the original redwood forests have been logged and the deforestation is still continuing. Luckily most of the few remaining stands are preserved in the National and State Parks, which are probably essential for the long term preservation of this species.
The woods outside of the parks (with many trees more than a thousand years old) are still being
"commercially managed".... This is source of constant protests, such as the famous action of activist Julia Butterfly Hill (photo). For over two years, she lived in the canopy of a coast redwood named
"Luna" to keep the the old growth tree from being logged by the Pacific Lumber Company and to plead for sustainable forestry instead of clearcutting entire woods (which has devastating effects on the natural balance and causes extreme soil erosion). Eventually she succeeded: as a result of the massive press coverage
(and the attention for the old growth forest clearcuttings it brought with it) "Luna" and some other redwoods were saved from the chain saw. What a remarkable woman!
It's highly probable that without actions like that and protests of organisations like "Save the redwoods League", "Sempervirens Fund", "Sierra Club", and others, there would be no old growth redwood forests left. These organisations get their money from gifts and buy privaty property themselves to donate them to the State Parks and National Parks.
The images below were taken by Nick Sabadosh in the misty redwood woods near Crescent City, California an are used here with permission. These holiday photos show specimens of Sequoia sempervirens in their natural environment, the foggy forests near the Pacific.
Because of the dramatic atmosphere, these forests have been used as scenery in movies: the scenes with the Ewoks in the Star Wars movies were shot in these woods, just as multiple parts of the Jurassic Park movies. For those last movies this choice is not very unlogic: during the Cretaceous, the top period for North American dinosaurs, these woods could be found all over the continent.
These trees
(and especially young ones) are quite sensitive for winter frost and do not grow that well on the eastern side of the Rockies and in most parts of Europe. Biggest limiting factor is drought: it just isn't wet enough. In the wettest European parts, in England and Wales, planted redwoods do already reach 45 meters and more en seed themselves.
The tallest of these trees caught popular attraction for the first time in 1963, when the National Geographic Society organised an expedition in the redwoods forest. They found a tree of 111.9 they christened, very originally, the "Tall Tree"... Immediately, the tree became famous.
The leaf expansion decreases with increasing height. Units are in meters.
This had its advantages and its disadvantages: the general public became aware of the uniqueness of these giants and the call for the creation of National Parks became louder. But fame also brought a flood of tourists. A road and a parking lot were constructed and buses started to bring loads of tourists, who all stood on the soft forest floor.
As you can see in the image on the right the size of the needles decreases with increasing height. The reason for this is that the tree has to do a bigger and bigger effort to get the water higher. Because of the tourists the ground around the tree was compacted and contained less and less water. As a result, already in the seventies, the top three to five meter started dying off. In 1990 the tree lost its top three meters and in 1991 he was not the tallest anymore. Currently this tree is known as the
"National Geographic Society Tree" and is the fifth known tall Sequoia sempervirens.
In 1996 a taller tree was discovered and officially became the tallest tree in the world: the
"Mendocino Tree" (111.4 m), growing in a remote valley with difficult terrain. The park rangers considered to keep the location secret to avoid damage to the tree and this is what happening with the in 2000 found "Stratosphere Giant" of 112.83 meter. The tree is still growing by the way. Only a couple of park rangers know which tree is the record one
(the record trees stand in the midst of other similar trees).
