Not the tallest in the world, not the widest and not the oldest. But size is volume, and if you count the combination of its height, diameter and estimated bole volume you’ll find out that General Sherman, a giant sequoia located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California, is the biggest tree in the world.
How big? 83.8 metres (275 ft) tall; a diameter of 7.7 metres (25 ft); an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 cu ft). Pretty big. How old? Somewhere around 2300-2700 years on this planet. Before Jesus.
The tree is named after William Tecumseh Sherman, an American Civil War general in the Union army. In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. As a result of the examinations was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.
Six years ago the largest of the tree’s broke off, probably due to a natural defense mechanism against adverse weather conditions. The branch, with a bigger circumference than the trunks of most trees, a diameter of over 2 metres (7 ft) and a length of over 30 metres (98 ft) smashed part of its enclosing fence and cratered the pavement of the walkway surrounding the tree.
Just for further info – The tallest tree in the world is the Hyperion tree, a coast redwood in Northern California, rising 115.61 metres (379.3 ft) from the ground, discovered in August 2006. The largest diameters in trees belong to a few Cypress and Baobab trees, while the oldest tree in the world is the Methuselah, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine growing in Eastern California, estimated to be 4843-4844 years old.
