Most of us spend a good part of our lives reveling in the wonders of this wonderful world we live in. On our lands, in our oceans, in our skies, there is an endless array of wonders in which we can immerse ourselves.
I just had a 'tree' moment.
Let me tell you about four individual trees.
The oldest living tree in the world is a White Mountains, California, Bristlecone Pine named Methuselah. This tree, found at 11,000 feet above sea level, is 4,838 years old. It is not only the oldest tree, but also the oldest living non-clonal organism in the world.
In 1964, a graduate student was taking core samples from a tree named Prometheus. His boring tool broke inside the tree so he asked the US Forest Service to cut it down and examine the full cross section of the wood. Amazingly, the forest service said yes. It turned out to be 5,000 years old, which would have made it the oldest living tree when the scientist unwittingly killed it.
Giant Sequoias, which only grow in Sierra Nevada, are the world's biggest in terms of volume. The biggest is General Sherman at 275 feet tall, over 52,500 cubic feet of volume, and over 6,000 tons in weight. It is 2,200 years old and each year adds enough wood to make a regular 60 foot tall tree.
The tallest trees are the Costal Redwoods. The tallest tree is called Hyperion in Redwood National Park, measuring over 379 feet. The exact location is not known to the public because of fear of the root system being trampled.
It is far beyond imagination, or estimation, to know how much life trees support, how much we use them economically, or how much recreation and enjoyment we derive from them.
I just had a 'tree' moment....
beyondtheveil posted on Sep 26, 2007
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Comments
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silverwhisper said on Sep 26, 2007....
OK, that bit about hyperion, the coastal redwood, and the fact that its location is being kept confidential was just so cool!
ed -
uniquely-ironic said on Sep 26, 2007....
I hope that Hyperion lives a very long time now that he's been revealed. I love walking in the redwoods, they make you realize just how small you are. -
secretlife said on Sep 26, 2007....
beyond: when you first came to SoulCast you wrote about your mulberry tree and how it had died and how you loved that tree. i remember you asking if we ever loved a tree! LOL....the things we remember!your post made me remember one of the neatest trees i've ever seen, which was on Maui-- it was called a banyan tree.There's a place in Lahaina called Banyan Tree Park.When you enter, you think you've just entered a forest...but in reality, all of the trees are connected and are just one tree!You just gave me a tree moment too! -
gingersoul said on Sep 26, 2007....
BeyBey........thank you for this tree moment....i needed .....:-)
Like Secret, i recall that post of yours.....
I wonder how shameful that student must have felt after discovering he had caused the death of the oldest living tree on Earth....
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mobil said on Sep 26, 2007....
I've seen the General Sherman tree Beyond, years ago. Did you know that certain stands of lodge pole pine are the oldest trees in the world? Not the tree itself, but the stand of trees. They only reproduce in fire, there is a resin on the pine cone that doesn't allow it to open and deposit it's sees unless I think over a hundred and eighty degrees.Also, the Aspen groves, Aspens are the the largest living organism in the world. Not a singe tree, but there are all connected. The entire grove is connected and the trees sucker off one another.I have a funny story about the General Sherman tree. My Father had an awful temper and while on vacation he had a new movie camara. My Mom, sister and I were standing infront of the General Sherman tree and the camara wouldn't work for him. He was tapping it, and shaking it and finally he has us step aside. He threw the brand new camara against the General Sherman tree and smashed it to bits. People looked like he was crazy, he wasn't though, just being my Dad haha. -
gingersoul said on Sep 26, 2007....
Mobil......ahem.......what is a movie camara? -
mobil said on Sep 26, 2007....
They were what we called home movie camaras back when I was just a little fucker.The film was on a reel, not a cassette, didn't take very good home movies either Gingerbread, hope that answers your.........ahem............question haha -
gingersoul said on Sep 26, 2007....
Ahem...you mean movie camera then....if so.....ahem.....yes, got it.......:-D -
wombat said on Sep 26, 2007....
Just here cause I love trees.... -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 26, 2007....
Ed- Cool is right. If my memory serves me, redwoods don't have deep roots or a tap root, so keeping the surface area around them undisturbed is important.
unique- I've been to California, but have never seen or walked the redwoods. I can only imagine what its like.
secret- I still have that stump in my front yard- won't take it out. There still isn't a time I'm in the yard I don't think about that tree. The Banyan tree site is beautiful and fascinating. Thanks.
ginsoul- I thank both of you for remembering, that was a long time ago. I was also wondering about the "scientist" who killed the tree. How does one live that down?
mobil- I didn't know about the lodge pole pine, but there are many groves of Aspen in the mountains we went to as a kid. I still drive through there often. I liked your story, too bad no one was there to film your dad.
wombat- Hope you liked it- you're welcome anytime.
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Me-Myself&I said on Sep 27, 2007....
I love trees too. I have been called a "tree hugger" more than once and i told them.... thanks!. :~) nice post and i loved the information. thanks, see ya -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 27, 2007....
memyself- So glad you liked the post. I've never been called a tree hugger, but if I was, thanks sounds like a good answer to me. -
destinydiva said on Sep 27, 2007....
I had a tree moment earlier this summer, in the back garden of my old house... I still miss that tree..... :-) xx -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 27, 2007....
des- I'll always miss that tree that was in my front yard. Amazing how a tree can affect a person. -
kruuyai said on Sep 28, 2007....
What about "El Tule" outside of Oaxaca, Mexico... reported to be the largest biomass on the planet? -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 28, 2007....
kruu- I checked out El Tule and it is beautiful and looks like a superdome. Its trunk (33 feet in diameter) is reportedly the largest in the world and the foliage area is huge. The pics were terrific.
However, Gen. Sherman's weight is 6000 tons- El Tule 500 tons. And volume will determine largest in the world. That is because Gen. Sherman is over twice as high and its trunk that counts, not area of foliage.
I thank you for this tree, it was very interesting to read about.
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gingersoul said on Sep 28, 2007....
BeyBey........i miss enormously the palms in front of my home in Italy.....and the thick woods of my hills...the smell and the shapes..the color and the simply great beauty of their living being....... -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 29, 2007....
ginsoul- Geez girl, even your comments sound like poetry...
When you mentioned smell, it reminded me of a cabin in the mountains we (my parents) had outside of a village at 9000 feet elevation. The odor changed from morning, to noon, and in the afternoon when there was usually a rain shower.
And the sound of the wind through those tall trees is like no other.
I can feel what you are missing. Why are you and I always missing something?
Is it Texas? Probably so.
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kruuyai said on Sep 29, 2007....
beyond: Do you know if they're counting the whole tree including the root system, or just the above ground part? That's so funny that they're touting El Tule as the largest biomass in the world if it's that much smaller than Gen. Sherman. By the way, where is Gen. Sherman? -
beyondtheveil said on Sep 29, 2007....
kruu- Good question. With many topics, statistics, definitions, and research can differ as I'm sure you have found. I can tell you that my three web sites for this info were regarding the largest tree as volume, and regarding above ground sheer weight as this volume. This would not include root system at all, and the canopy would add little.
Now, if you included root system extension, trunk, and volume of the entire canopy coverage, you could well come up with a larger tree or bio-mass. I guess it depends on who's definition of "largest" is being used, at least it sounds that way to me.
Gen. Sherman is in the Sierra Nevada mountain range and covers a large part of East-Central California. A very small part is in the state of Nevada.
(few minutes pass) I Googled 'world's largest biomass' and found El Tule. So evidently it does come down to definition. By the way, both El Tule and Gen. Sherman are from the Cypress family.
If you want to discuss this more, I'd be happy to.
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mdvaden said on May 06, 2008....
Actually, the Giant Sequioas are not the largest trees in the world. It's about 10 of the Giant Sequioas are the largest in the world, because only about that 10 or so, are larger than the Lost Monarch coast redwood, which does have a wider trunk base than General Sherman. So we can safely say that about 10 Sequioadendron are the largest trees in the world. Hyperion, Icarus and Helios are the tallest trees known - all 3 are coastal redwoods. And Lost Monarch, Del Norte Titan and Iluvatar are the largest coastal redwoods, with Lost Monarch being larger than the other two. Grove of Titans & Atlas Grove California Titan Redwoods The locations of most of the current largest and tallest coastal redwoods are undisclosed, unlike the Giant Sequoias that have been on the map for some time.