Tallest trees in Australia

[Synthase]

Pics from a recent trip to Tasmania. The tree with the blueish sky in the background is Centurion which is the supposed tallest tree in Australia/outside western America. The other picture is the second tallest tree in Australia. Both are Eucalyptus regnans and both are in state forests.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Synthase

[tarenna]

Looks like mighty fine woodchip to me.

[Gimli]

Looks like mighty fine woodchip to me.

This literally made me laugh out loud :D

[waterboy 2.0]

supposed recognised tallest angiosperm in the world

I hope the bastards do not gaze upon the tallest tree....they burnt El Grande...that thing was a grand old stag.

They even stopped naming them for a while after that...lol

El Grande was considered to have the greatest volume, only a mere 79 metres tall...lol

Edited January 29, 2015 by waterboy

[Synthase]

I went to the spot where El Grande was, which is now a deforested clearing full of tree stumps. Thought I had pics of it but apparently not... A 15 minute drive down the road is the tree which is reported as having the biggest butt in Tas currently, also a regnans. I found it really difficult to photograph this tree whilst demonstrating its actual size due to the density of vegetation surrounding it so I apologise for the average quality of the pics. Both these pics are of the same tree.

[Alice]

So how tall are they?

[Synthase]

So how tall are they?

The tallest were quoted as 99.7 m and 99.4 m however I believe they are rather dynamic and the tallest, Centurion, is shrinking due to old age whilst the younger 99.4 m one is still growing. In the Styx valley in Tasmania there are multiple trees over 90 m of which several were estimated to once be ~=>100m but are now ~90m and shrinking due to old age. I think it would be nice to have them remeasured accurately as I think year-on-year the heights of these trees may change by several meters. I think there are many old groves of E. regnans in Tasmania and Victoria, if left alone for the next 50 - 100 years, could perhaps become the tallest trees on the planet.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Synthase

[Synthase]

I really liked this tree which is referred to as Sir Viminalis ie. the tallest Manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) in existence at ~92 m. I used to live in Armidale NSW which is surrounded by many 10 - 20 m tall Manna gums (as is much of the great dividing range in NSW/Vic) so to see one in Tas 5 - 10 x taller was something special.

[gtarman]

I remember traveling through an area in Southwest WA near Walpole called Valley of Giants...supposedly some big beasties in there as well, although I can't recall how big. Google reckons around 400 years old though.

[Gimli]

Could be a little off here with tree height of the giants near Walpole... Hell of a climb! Climbed the Gloucester tree when I was 12, haven't done it since :/

Gloucester Tree - 72m

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree - 75m

Diamond Tree - 51m

[ThunderIdeal]

I don't know much about gums but do monsters ever retain proper strong branches? Its as though falling apart is part of what they do. I've never seen trees like in this thread but the ones I have seen were also like a massive damaged trunk full of hollows where massive branches once grew and covered with regrowth.

[etherealdrifter]

freakin thumping great thread ...soo nice to see pics of massive trees

@thunder i equate what ^ you saying above to the concept of cellul;ar muscle regen like weightlifting, ie,tearing down, falling off -sometimes in some systems this would represent stronger more powerful growth , rather than a general degrading of the system as a whole.

old gnarly tree bark huggings

[ThunderIdeal]

Maybe it does in the case of gums? There is half a reason to believe it, but loss of old limbs deeply embedded into heartwood tends to mean the epicormic growth won't surpass the original growth in size or weight before it too snaps off.

It would be an interesting topic for somebody in the know. I noticed one of those trees, despite no current competition for sunlight, has a tall bare trunk with a little crown up top. Why is this so, what did it look like earlier, and why doesn't it throw any shoots lower down?

[franky]

Wasn't the biigest tree in Tas cut down to wait for it...... measure it? or this an old story from early 20th century?

[ThunderIdeal]

That's what I heard, and it was I'm fact the tallest tree in the world.

[waterboy 2.0]

stop bagging the two-headed ones ya bastards...lol

thunder e.regnans barely has the ability for epicormic growth. Has a unique relationship with fire in its niche.

basically an obligate seeder.....get the canopy up...get it full of seed and hold out long enough to dominate the seedbed and outgrow other species when a kick arse fire goes through (at a long interval). Longer the interval of fire and the more ideal the conditions the bigger they get.

It actually has an interesting relationship with fire in the landscape. Its just of timescales that many cannot get a handle on.

Edit - they are not the climax forest....its a survival strategy

The big e.viminalis tend to be at the wetter end of their range, and have a fire protected site (which generally is "overdue" for a blaze)

Edited February 3, 2015 by waterboy

[obtuse]

there are mixed benefits for eucalyptus growing so tall.

As waterboy states, grow tall, dominate the canopy, drop lots of seeds, also helps increase genetic diversity of seeds.

but euc seedlings need lots of light to survive, so too many large adults in one area for too long, and the area can start to be taken over by rainforest species, and then the transition begins to form rainforest.

but yeah time scales.

Edited February 3, 2015 by obtuse