The tallest tree in the world has its own name. He is Hyperion. Sequoia Hyperion. Specifically, sequoia sempervirens. There is a competition among giant trees for the title of the tallest on the planet. Thus, Hyperion was recognized as the highest in August 2006.
In truth, the trees themselves, of course, are unaware of their participation in such a competition. People are looking for the tallest, fattest, oldest, growing up in extreme conditions, and so on. Let’s get acquainted with the world of dendro giants.
Wood giants
There are not so many varieties of trees whose height reaches sixty (196.8 ft) and more meters on our planet. Botanists call them spruce and mountain pine, they grow up to 60-70 meters (196.8-229.6 ft). False cypress Lawson, known to many gardeners as Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, in natural conditions can reach eighty meters (262.4 ft) in height.
Fir: Noble, Nordmann and Douglas, otherwise known as Douglas fir. Douglas fir is currently the second tallest tree, the height of seventy meters (229.6 ft) is not uncommon. The tallest specimen of Douglas fir, now living, is called “Doerner Fir”, height 99.4 meters (326.1 ft). Eucalyptus has an impressive size and royalty, which can grow more than a hundred meters (328 ft).
However, the “yellow leader T-shirt” rightfully belongs to the sequoias. There are, in fact, evergreen sequoia and giant Sequoia (or Sequoyadendron), whose representatives are also called mammoth trees for their gigantic size. The evergreen sequoia is taller, but Sequoyadendron has a thicker trunk.
General Sherman, Hyperion and Helios
As mentioned above, the tallest tree on Earth today is an evergreen sequoia named Hyperion. The height of the tree growing in Northern California in Redwood National Park is 115.61 meters (379.2 ft), the trunk diameter is 4.84 meters (15.9 ft). The giant is about eight hundred years old.
Hyperion is tired: a woodpecker damaged the top, therefore, the giant’s growth slowed down. Perhaps very soon he will have to give up the palm to another representative of the red redwoods — Helios. Helios continues to grow rapidly, and in 2015 its height was 114 meters 58 centimeters (375.9 ft).
But let the young compete in growth. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoyadendron, known as General Sherman.
According to scientists, this outstanding mammoth tree is almost 2,700 years old. And let it not be the tallest tree in the world (its height is only 83.8 meters/274.9 ft), but General Sherman is the largest living organism on our planet. Well, not counting Pando Grove (Utah, USA) – a clone colony of aspen poplar, the total weight of which is six thousand tons. Although it is a grove, but it is considered a single organism.
The weight of General Sherman is 1,900 tons, the volume of wood is 1,487 cubic meters, and the diameter of the trunk is 7.7 meters/25.3 ft (at a height of 1.5 meters/4.9 ft). For comparison: the volume of wood of a high, but “thin” Hyperion is only 502 cubic meters.
No matter how tall the sequoias are, there is a limit to their growth. And this limit, surprisingly enough, is laid down by the laws of physics. Scientists have calculated that the growth of any tree on our planet cannot exceed 120-130 meters (393.7-426.5 ft). Growing higher will prevent gravity and water rubbing against the pores of the wood.
Sequoias and people
Next to the “Sherman” there is a sign where it is reported with the greatest accuracy that forty houses can be built from this tree alone, five rooms in each house.”
Sequoia is one of the oldest trees on Earth. They were widely grown on our planet during the Cretaceous period (145 million years ago).
The Ice Age significantly reduced the redwood forests in North America, and the remaining ones were thoroughly thinned out by the inhabitants of the New World: after all, they cut down trees and built a cottage settlement. Now there are only three dozen groves of these giants – in Northern California on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
For those who love conifers and are interested in giants, you can make a giant sequoia the target of this. This relict plant can really be grown from seeds or buy a ready-made seedling.