For us plant lovers, trees are perhaps the greatest source of wonder—the ultimate embodiment of the plant world. I may have said this before, but when we debate whether God is male or female, I have no doubt: God is a tree.
Some of the tallest trees on Earth grow in the remote tropical regions of Borneo and the ancient forests of Tasmania.
The tallest trees in Europe are taller than a 20-story building, but they are all exotic species from some of the world’s most pristine wildernesses.
However, none of them can compare to the majestic grandeur and awe-inspiring presence of the redwoods growing in the coastal forests of California—the ancient kings of the plant kingdom.
Here are the tallest trees in the world, and of course, this is just the top ten, but there are many more. Let’s begin this wonderful journey of discovery from the comfort of our own homes:
The tallest tree in Italy: John Paul II
Located in the La Verna Monastery in Arezzo, this 51.85-meter-tall Abies alba is estimated to be 300 years old. It is considered the tallest native tree in Italy, but not the absolute record holder.
In fact, Italy’s “King of Trees” is a Douglas fir, standing at 62.47 meters tall in the Valombrosa Forest of Reggello, Tuscany. The Douglas fir, also known as the Oregon pine, is native to North America.
I don’t know if 62 meters sounds tall or short, but it’s as tall as the Statue of Liberty. What would you think if I told you that in this video we’ll see a tree twice that height?
The tallest tree in Europe: Karri Knight
The record for the old continent belongs to Karri Knight, a eucalyptus grown in the Valle de Canas, in Coimbra, Portugal. AND 72.9 meters tall with a trunk circumference of 5.71 meters and is approximately 128 years old, thus leaving the possibility of it becoming even taller in the future.
The botanical species is Eucalyptus diversicolor, native to Western Australia.
Karri Knight has fortunately managed to resist the forest fires that have recently threatened his safety and that of many other trees.
General Sherman
And the famous General Sherman? Despite being a specimen with a very respectable height, given its 83.8 meters, it is not its record. However, it wins in another category breaking every record in terms of volume.
This specimen of Sequoiadendron giganteum grows in the Sequoia National Park in California and with a volume of 1587 m3 it is the largest living organism on the planet. Its weight is estimated at 1910 tons.
His age is astonishing and recent estimates approximate it to 3113 years.
Its name is due to James Wolverton who in 1879 named it in honor of William Tecumseh Sherman, a general of the American Civil War.
Centurion
If we exclude the Californian Sequoia forests, Centurion appears to be the tallest tree in the world at 99.6 meters high. It grows in Tasmania and is the tallest specimen of Eucalyptus in the world and at the same time the tallest non-redwood tree ever found.
It also boasts the record of the tallest angiosperm in the world (flowering plants).
It is located within the Tahune Forest Reserve, it was discovered in 2008 by forestry technicians from the reserve.
In 2019 a fire seriously threatened the life of Centurion, but fortunately the eucalyptus trees have managed to evolve in order to cope with these natural disasters.
The Sequoias
However, the tallest trees in the world are the California Sequoias: the tallest trees in the world are found here and for them beating Centurion is child’s play.
Consider that in the top ten of the tallest trees in the world (all Californian redwoods), tenth place is occupied by Minaret, a 112.47 m specimen.
All the 10 tallest trees in the world therefore exceed this height, they are all Sequoia sempervirens and they are all found in the Californian parks that are home to these forests that appear to be green cathedrals.
Then there are many specimens, often with evocative names, all grown in the Californian forests we mentioned: Giant of the stratosphere (113.52 meters and 1277 years of age), Paradox (113.32 m and 836 years), Icarus (113.14 meters).
They are all plants with heights above 112 meters and you will hardly find plants above 100 meters outside the Californian redwood forests.
But let’s see the podium
Nugget 113.84 m
Discovered in 1963, it was the tallest tree in the world from May 1991 until 1995. It is a Redwood NP Sequoia and its name is the diction of the acronym NGT which stands for National Geographic Tree, to which this specimen pays homage.
Helios 114.95 m
Helios is a specimen of Sequoia sempervirens from Redwood National Park, California. Not much is known about him, as for the first in the ranking his position is hidden but it is known that he did not grow up in a forest, but on a hill.
The height is dizzying, reaching 114.95 metres reached in its venerable 2049 years. Even though it is not the oldest known tree on the planet, it is still impressive to know that it has been there since well before the birth of Christ.
Another interesting note about this tree is that it has the largest canopy in the world, spanning approximately 19,710 m3.
Discovered by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor on July 1, 2006, Helios held the record of tallest tree in the world for a few weeksbefore the same naturalists identified Hyperion, the current reigning champion.
Hyperion: 116.07 m
Hyperion is thetallest living being in the world surpassing monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and Big Ben with its 116.07 m. in height, equal to that of Brunelleschi’s dome of the Florence Cathedral.
It is consequently also the tallest of the more than 3 trillion trees on our planet.
Hyperion is one Evergreen redwooddiscovered on August 25, 2006 by naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor in a remote area of Redwood National Park in California, far from trails and immersed in dense bush.
The precise location of Hyperion was not revealed to prevent it from becoming a tourist destination and the crowding of people could harm the health of the tree and its ecosystem, although it has always been possible to find the precise coordinates of its location online.
Consequently, however, all this was not enough to keep away tourists and curious people who flocked to see this Guinness World Record tree up close. This caused the disappearance of the fern undergrowth and the degradation of the base of the trunk, as well as the classic appearance of waste abandoned on the ground. A little sad to think that our attitude doesn’t change even in the face of something so immense and amazing. I am convinced that nature will eliminate us one day or another.
While we await extinction, the park authority has instituted an exemplary punishment for anyone found within the off-limit zone: $5,000 fine and imprisonment for up to 6 months. This, as the organization has specified, also benefits tourists since the area has no telephone coverage and the arduous route could easily cause injuries to visitors, who would be unable to call for help. Then at this point… it’s their fault.
But let’s go back to our Hyperion, a name that pays homage to the titan of the same name from Greek mythology, brother of Kronos and Rhea and father of Helios.
The total volume of this tree contains 530 m3 of wood and its foliage has something like 550 million leaves.
It was first climbed by biologist James C. Spickler on September 16, 2006.
Hyperion has aestimated age of 915 years and it still continues to grow albeit at a lower rate than other trees, it is therefore possible that with the passage of time someone will be able to surpass it.
And in fact it must be said that the label of ‘tallest tree in the world’ frequently moves among the record specimens also due to the action of external agents such as the wind (which can remove a portion of the foliage) or the pecking of some invasive woodpecker.
Champions that they were
If you think that nothing higher has ever grown on earth, you are wrong. There are at least 5 now deceased or felled trees that exceeded the 116 meters of Hyperion, even exceeding 130 and 140 meters.
How big can a tree grow?
This might sound like a strange question, but how tall can trees actually grow? Is there a limit? Let’s find out!
A team of biologists led by George Koch of Northern Arizona University estimated the theoretical maximum height a tree can reach—the point where the forces promoting tree growth and the forces anchoring the tree in the soil are perfectly balanced.
This point lies between 122 and 130 meters.
Trees tend to grow as tall as possible to tower over other trees and occupy positions that receive more sunlight. On the other hand, gravity gradually makes it more difficult for water to be transported from the roots to the canopy, resulting in leaves becoming smaller as they rise.
Because of this mechanism, beyond a certain height, leaves (or needles) cannot obtain enough water because the energy produced by photosynthesis is insufficient to pay for the energy required to transport water upwards.
“As trees grow taller, the increased water stress caused by gravity and water resistance restricts leaf expansion, thereby inhibiting photosynthesis and hindering further tree growth,” the biologists wrote in a 2004 article published in *Nature*. This maximum height is around 121 meters or slightly higher.