Researchers Discover the Tallest Known Tree in the Amazon | Hacker News Reader

Researchers Discover the Tallest Known Tree in the Amazon

smithsonianmag.com

76 pointsdeepbow23 comments

Because a lot of HN readers are located near San Francisco, I thought it would be worth mentioning that this tree is not as tall as the tallest tree in the bay area! There is a 328-foot redwood tree in Big Basin.

https://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2013/09/18/328-foot-redwoo...

There are hundreds of amazing, huge trees in Big Basin and I would recommend it to anyone. It is humbling to think that these organisms may outlive you by a thousand years. Even if you aren't into hiking for long distances, or if you are bringing along small children, the one-mile loop trail near the entrance is very nice. So many people come to SF for the tech industry and don't take advantage of the world-class parks that are also in the area.

additionally, Hyperion is 379ft

Amazing a tree that tall can get things from the root that high. Unless the tops work differently?

Redwoods depend on the humidity and fog from the pacific coast to get water to its highest parts and to keep it from drying out.

For those who might interested.

“ Foliar Uptake of Fog in the Coast Redwood Ecosystem: a Novel Drought-Alleviation Strategy Shared by Most Redwood Forest Plants”[1]

[1]https://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr238/...

yep. its pretty incredible. Old redwoods have entire ecosystems in their crowns. full on bushes that bear fruit, ferns, etc...

>It is humbling to think that these organisms may outlive you by a thousand years.

They'll probably outlive the tall trees in the Amazon, since Brazil is happily razing the forest as fast as they can.

> 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons

> Sorry, this content is not available in your region.

blog.* is unavailable in GDPR-land but I found another entry on the proper site which is available in europe: https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/777-year-old-tree-is-...

Not to mention, the tallest tree in the world is only a few hours drive away in Sequoia National Park.

That'd would be the largest tree by volume, the General Sherman tree is 52,500 cubic feet.

The tallest tree would be Hyperion, a coastal redwood, which is in an undisclosed location in one of the Redwood National or State parks.

Coincidentally the oldest tree in the world is also in California, Methuselah in Eastern California is 4,851 years old.

Not quite. I’ve heard of even older than the following quote but it’s in the Longevity book and I don’t have a direct quote handy:

“

Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research Group then announced the age of another P. longaeva also located in the White Mountains — this one 5,062 years old

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/29152-o...

Arguably, a spruce in Sweden is 9550 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko

Depends how you count regrowing from the roots though. Trees can't be too much older because that's around the end of the Ice Age. ;-)

My personal preference is not for a single tall or big tree as much as a sprawling area full of many huge trees. If you're ever in the far-Northern-California area, this hike is amazing:

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/cathedral-tree...

The location of Hyperion doesn't seem to be undisclosed.

http://famousredwoods.com/hyperion/

It's "88.5 meters, or over 290 feet", for those just looking for the number.

There was always a "Tallest Known" tree, a better headline would mention that the new tree was about a third bigger than the previous tallest known, at 88.5m.

And... it's now a soy field /s

They had better un-discover it before some idiot chops it down just because

Or, alternatively, drives into it with their truck while drunk[1].

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_T%C3%A9n%C3%A9r%C3%A9

Ugh. Was camping at a small oasis in the desert in Jordan earlier this year. Someone had chopped down all 6 palm trees recently. Somehow it seems so much more tragic when there isn't another tree in 10s of miles.

Few things get my goat like this, but I'd drop all forms of civility in a heart beat just to see the kind of person who'd do that suffer.

I was wondering how they managed to hit the only tree for hundreds of miles around. Its isolation made it a target, basically the only landmark around, so of course people would be driving straight at it.

A meth head burned down the oldest tree (3500 YO) in Florida a few years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senator_(tree)

Not sure why this was flagged. Noteworthy trees (tallest, oldest, last remaining, famously beautiful, etc) routinely get chopped down by vandals, apparently purely out of spite.

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