Largest living tree (volume)
Who
Giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, General Sherman
Where
United States ()
When
2013

The world’s largest living tree is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) named General Sherman, located in Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, USA. The tree is 83.6 m (274 ft 3.3 in) tall and has a tape-wrap diameter of 825 cm (27 ft), although the functional diameter (converted from the actual cross-sectional area of the stem) is 764 cm (25 ft). As of 2013, total volume of wood and bark was 1,591 m3 (56,186 cu ft) – 1,389 m3 (49,052 cu ft) of which is in the main trunk. This tree is estimated to contain the equivalent of almost 675,000 board feet of timber, enough to make in excess of 5 billion matchsticks. The aboveground dry mass of the tree is an estimated 582 tonnes (642 US tons). The bark alone has a dry mass of 48 tonnes (53 US tons), and the tree supports 1.68 tonnes (1.85 US tons) dry mass of leaves. Based on research conducted in 2002, General Sherman is estimated to be 2,000 years old, although it's believed that there are reasonably older specimens out there, perhaps up to 4,000 years old, because size doesn't always correlate with age in this species.


Even larger conifers have been reported historically. The Lindsey Creek Tree, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) felled by a storm in 1905, had a reported trunk volume in the region of 2,550 m³ (90,000 cu ft) and height of 120 m (390 ft). Another superlative specimen was the Crannell Creek Giant, aka Maple Creek Tree, which was also a coast redwood. Logged in the 1920s, the volume is believed to have been conservatively 1,727 m³ (61,000 cu ft) - and perhaps even as much as 1,980 m³ (70,000 cu ft) - even though its height was only 93 m (308 ft).

Outside of its native range, the largest planted Sequoiadendron in the world is in Frankton, New Zealand. In 2011, the tree was 472 cm (15 ft 5.8 in) diameter and 43.5 m (142 ft 8.6 in) tall and had an estimated aboveground dry mass of 141 tonnes (155 US tons).

The tallest living tree overall also hails from California, USA. A specimen of coast redwood, named Hyperion, is located in Redwood National Park and stood 116.07 m (380 ft 9.7 in) tall when last measured in 2019.