General Sherman Tree

The General Sherman Tree is the largest living tree in the world. He is a mountain or giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum) and is in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in the U.S. state of California. Its age is estimated to be about 1900 to 2500 years.

Discovery and naming

As the first non-Indians to the Giant Forest was the ranchers Hale Tharp shown in 1858 by fellow Indians. Later, the trappers and naturalist James Wolverton Tharp accompanied in the Giant Forest, where he spent several winters. On August 7, 1879 Wolverton discovered the tree and named it after General William T. Sherman, under whom he had served as a lieutenant in the Civil War.

Members of the socialist Kaweah Cooperative Colony, in 1886 settled in the vicinity of the forest, named the tree in Karl Marx Tree.

After the establishment of Sequoia National Park in 1890, the tree was in reserve. The Kaweah Colony broke up until 1892. The park administration named the tree again in General Sherman Tree. 1931 several giant sequoias were measured accurately and it was found that the General Sherman Tree has the largest volume.

Dimensions

The General Sherman Tree has a stem height of 83.8 m and is therefore not the tallest tree in the world, which is equipped with a trunk height of 115.55 m of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Hyperion in the Redwood National Park. Even Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and giant Eukalyptuse (Eucalyptus regnans ) can sometimes be significantly higher. It is also not the thickest tree, which is the Arbol del Tule, a Mexican bald cypress, which is lower.

The characteristic feature of the General Sherman Tree, which has a diameter of 825 centimeters at breast height, is to be averaged in further ordinary course of large diameter over the total height of about five meters. Provisions of the stem volume of this massive tree yielded a value of 1486.6 cubic meters in 1975, later amounted to 1489 cubic meters, and the National Park Service lists it currently with 52 508 cubic feet ( cft ), which corresponds to 1486.9 m³ (as of December 2012).

This is the most voluminous living tree and the largest plant on earth. Sometimes he is even as the "biggest creatures on earth " ( Largest Living Thing on Earth ) called, but this is not correct, because that is a mushroom Armillaria ostoyae in Malheur kind of National Forest, Oregon with an area of ​​approximately 965 ha

In early 2006, lost the tree during a winter storm, a large tree branch that destroyed when crashing down parts of the fences around the tree and created a crater in the landscaped walkways. The loss of the branch changes have so far not the position of the tree as the largest of all trees, because the volume of this list are so far only compared for the tribes ( as the root volume, for Astvolumen, leaf volume and root volume are not usually known).

Other giant trees

William Tecumseh Sherman Hyperion (tree) Armillaria solidipes Malheur National Forest
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