New World's Tallest Tree?

[woodsorrel]

Hi Everyone!

I live in the shadows of giant Redwood Trees. These are the tallest trees on Earth.

But maybe there will be a new "World's Tallest Tree?" Some scientist believe that the Tasmanian Mountain Ash will soon become the tallest. What do you think? (detailed info)


I spent some time hiking around Tasmania. So I can personally vouch for the size of these behemoths.

Does this tree make me look short?

- Woodsorrel

 

[Robson Valley]

Ah! Woodsorrel!
Chances are that Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest.
Deserves a place as it's a hardwood, no less.
Did you get west, beyond Launceston?

NW British Columbia has or had the fattest trees, Western Red Cedar.
I saw a house trailer/home, chain-sawed out of a single log at the Pacific National
Exhibition in Vancouver when I was a kid.
The biggest WRC tree butt that I've found was near Kitimat. At chest height on me,
it was 16' thick.

 

[petrochemicals]

Nope, douglas fir I believe to be the tallest, but all of the groves got cut down I believe. I have been reliably informed by wikipedia. Have a nice time woodsorrel? A nice pacific tour.

 

[woodsorrel]

Ah! Woodsorrel!
Chances are that Eucalyptus regnans is the tallest...

No Robson Valley, say it ain't so! We'll see, the tallest Redwood still has the tallest ash by 17 m. I am not ready to concede just yet.

NW British Columbia has or had the fattest trees, Western Red Cedar.
I saw a house trailer/home, chain-sawed out of a single log at the Pacific National
Exhibition in Vancouver when I was a kid.
The biggest WRC tree butt that I've found was near Kitimat. At chest height on me,
it was 16' thick.

I sea kayaked in the Johnstone Strait several times to observe Orca. To reach the put-in point, we had to drive through a logging area. I was astounded by the size of the trees and the logs we saw. So I readily believe you that an entire home can be chain-sawed from a single log.

If I head east into the Sierras, I can find giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum), related to Redwoods, so wide that you can drive automobiles through tunnels in the tree trunks.

I feel like we're swapping tall tree stories.

- Woodsorrel

 

[woodsorrel]

Nope, douglas fir I believe to be the tallest, but all of the groves got cut down I believe. I have been reliably informed by wikipedia.

You raise a good point, petrochemicals. We've cut down so many trees that for all we know we have skewed the living population. Most of the redwood forest near me is second growth. I hike by stumps of trees much larger than the ones that comprise the forest today. So it is possible that douglas firs were once the tallest and the tall ones no longer exist...

Have a nice time woodsorrel? A nice pacific tour.

Yes, I had a great time in Australia. I spent a month traveling, hiking and observing wildlife in different types of habitat. I also worked on a cattle station for a brief time. My "big achievement" was hiking solo for 18 km through a high altitude rain forest. I will never forget the experience of being alone in the bush. But in retrospect it may not have been the smartest thing to do.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Robson Valley]

On the British Columbia coast, Sitka spruce was highly prized as sailing ship masts.
I don't know if there ever was a mast-bending pool like there is on the Thames in London.

Some university people worked in my district for years, digging pits to catalog 7,000 years of forest fire history.
Approx 90km/60 miles west of my village is a place now marked as "The Ancient Forest." Wheel-chair accessible wooden trails and all.
There was a logging company which did have the legal, licenced right to cut it all down.
Lot of effort to convince them to work some where else.
Apparently, the mountain geography has created a zone which has not been struck by fire-inducing lightning for more than 4,000 years.
There are some big trees in there. It's quite normal for the tops of the western red cedar to die but the girth of the trunk keeps growing.
Very slow here at 53N. Short summers and narrow growth rings. If you sawed me in half, you wouldn't count 70.

Also, the cores of the trees rot out. Begins as early as a 20-yr old stem! As you walk by the big trees, it's a reasonable assumption
that you're looking at maybe 12" thick wood.

 

[petrochemicals]

Yes, I had a great time in Australia. I spent a month traveling, hiking and observing wildlife in different types of habitat. I also worked on a cattle station for a brief time. My "big achievement" was hiking solo for 18 km through a high altitude rain forest. I will never forget the experience of being alone in the bush. But in retrospect it may not have been the smartest thing to do.

- Woodsorrel

Sounds nice, and was it not you in hawaii at the plane wreck too? As for australia, hiking outside the door sounds hazardous, spiders snakes crocks, dingos locals. Still nice though

 

[Robson Valley]

I went to university, 4 years, in Melbourne. Spent a lot of time NE on the Bogong High Plains
(bagged Bogong in winter). Spiders in the house, snakes in the bush, just had to learn to
pay attention to the small things. Never made it North of Brisbane.

I am 100% happy that my REI tent had a floor and a rain fly.
You ain't felt nothin' until you've had a run-in with the Bull Ants.
Essentially wasps which have no wings.

 

[woodsorrel]

Sounds nice, and was it not you in hawaii at the plane wreck too? As for australia, hiking outside the door sounds hazardous, spiders snakes crocks, dingos locals. Still nice though

You have a good memory, petrochemicals. The plane crashed near where I live in California, but the flight originated in Australia via Hawaii.

My biggest worry during my hike was not the hazards I knew about, but the unknown ones. The flora and fauna were so new to me that I worried I would blunder into something dangerous without even realizing it (like the Giant Stinging Tree).

The hike itself was wonderful and I did not run into any danger. My favorite part was encountering an Albert's lyrebird (Menura alberti). I managed to follow it for a while but had to turn back before losing contact with the trail.

Another thrilling aspect of the forest was that in certain locations parrots would fly out of the trees and land on you if they thought you had food. These were birds that obviously knew humans, but did not fear them.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Laurentius]

Douglas firs give them a fair run for there money, the tallest trees in the UK are douglas firs, I think the tallest of all is in Scotland but I am much more familiar with those around Lake Vyrnwy, the tallest of them was struck by lightening and was subsequently cut down. A close neighbour was not far off and now takes the crown for Wales.

 

[woodsorrel]

Douglas firs give them a fair run for there money, the tallest trees in the UK are douglas firs, I think the tallest of all is in Scotland but I am much more familiar with those around Lake Vyrnwy, the tallest of them was struck by lightening and was subsequently cut down. A close neighbour was not far off and now takes the crown for Wales.

I really like Douglas firs! I had no idea they grew in the UK, too. The ones near me make wonderful pine needle tea. Chewing the needles gives a burst of citrus and pine taste.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Pterodaktyl]

I really like Douglas firs! I had no idea they grew in the UK, too. The ones near me make wonderful pine needle tea. Chewing the needles gives a burst of citrus and pine taste.

- Woodsorrel

Douglas Fir isn't native to the UK but they're quite common as forestry planting or ornamental trees. The tallest tree in England (as opposed to the UK as a whole) is also a Douglas Fir, in a valley near Dunster, Somerset.

 

[Robson Valley]

I had the good fortune to do my PhD across the hall from a lab that was sorting out the chemical genetics of a big mix of Eucalyptus in Australia( LaTrobe.)
Oranges, Douglasfir, pines, spruces, true firs and Eucalyptus all show the same list of components but the proportions change!
Would not have believed it for the chromatograph prints.

Douglasfir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is one of 6 species in the genus, most are Asian.
You name it as one word as it is not a true fir (Abies sp). by any stretch of the imagination.
Like Butterfly and dragonfly. They are not true, Diptera, flies.