Widest crown on a living tree (single trunk)

Throughout both the temperate and tropical world, several types of giant, emergent trees can develop crowns of around 45 m (147 ft) in diameter or more, including Afrocarpus, Agathis, Ficus, Platanus, Quercus, among others. Some trees can exceed this with assistance from supporting trunks (banyans) or with branches resting on the ground (e.g., Quercus), but self-supporting crown structures in excess of 55 m (180 ft) diameter are extremely rare. Two of the most prominent species that can attain such a size are the rain tree, aka monkey pod tree (Albizia saman) and the kapok, aka silk-cotton tree (Cieba pentandra). Of these, the largest known living specimen is a rain tree called Chamchuri, located on the Thai Army cavalry grounds near Kanchanaburi, Thailand, with a crown diameter of 60.4 m (198 ft 1.9 in). As of 2018, its trunk had a girth of 9.15 m (30 ft) and the tree stood 17.6 m (57 ft 8.9 in) tall, according to measurements taken by Marc Meyer.

The rain tree is native from Mexico to Peru, but is widely planted throughout the tropics and subtropics. Rain trees can get >50 m (>164 ft) diameter crown spread within 100 years, and is one of only two species known to reach 60-m-diameter (197-ft) crown supported by a single stem. A very large rain tree on the island off Tobago of the coast of Venezuela was used in the filming of Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Originally claimed to have a crown spread of 61 m (200 ft), it is obvious from watching the movie that the impressive tree was a bit shy of that. Another large example, nearly as wide as Chamchuri, is found at the Gymkhana Sports Club golf course in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with a crown width of 58.9 m (193 ft 2.9 in).

Similar to rain trees, the kapok also has a native range from Mexico to Peru, but also the Caribbean and a small outlier in West Africa. Also similarly, kapok is widely planted throughout the tropics, with locally famous trees in many towns and villages. It is also one of largest of all tropical trees, and one that makes tremendously large bases with plank buttresses that occasionally span 12 m (39 ft) or more at ground level. Often emergent above surrounding vegetation, kapok grows above and then expands its immense crown over the top of the surrounding forest. Since 1993, Árbol Giagante on Barro Colorado Island in Panama was known to have a crown diameter of 61.3 m (201 ft 1.4 in), which was the first modern record of a single-trunked tree with a diameter exceeding 60 m. The giant 49.7-m-tall (163-ft) tree had a massive 15-m-diameter (49-ft) buttressed base, and no branches for 21 m (69 ft). However, Árbol Giagante was confirmed to have fallen in 2013 after an expedition by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Arguably the most famous kapok, The Cotton Tree of Freetown in Sierra Leone was already a large tree when settled by freed African-American slaves in 1787. The giant tree currently serves as the centerpiece to the city which has grown around it, oddly towering over the downtown municipal buildings. The 45-m-tall (147-ft 7.6-in) tree has a massive, buttressed base and has an average crown spread of 51.1 m (167 ft 7.8 in).

An exceptional sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus) that grows just outside of Abraha Atsbeha in Ethiopia has an average crown diameter of 56.7 m (186 ft), a size all but unheard of for a fig tree.