Tallest artificial tree

The centerpiece of Animal Kingdom Park in Walt Disney World, Florida, USA, is the 45.2-m-tall (148-ft 3.5-in) Tree of Life, an artificial tree with a crown diameter of 50.3 m (165 ft). The design is inspired by the giant baobab that appears in the 1994 movie The Lion King (home to the character Rafiki). After several design iterations, the designers wanted the massive tree base to house a 430-seat theatre, so they settled on a refitted oil-rig platform, which has a wide base and is engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds. A series of steel mesh sheets were then placed over the structure to give the trunk its basic shape. More than 20 master sculptors were brought in from all over the world to sculpt the roots, trunk and branch bases into a swirling tapestry of 325 endangered and extinct animals. The tree took more than 18 months to build and was completed for the opening of the park on 22 April 1998.

Twelve main branch systems emerge from the basal structure. Attached to these are 45 secondary branch systems, 756 tertiary branch systems, and finally 7,891 end branches of various sizes. Each attachment point includes expansion joints so the branch systems can move naturally in response to wind. Attached to the distal branches are 102,000 leaves of five shades of green and four different shapes and sizes. These leaves are made from thermoplastic kynar that resists degradation from ultraviolet radiation, and each was attached individually by hand.