- Who
- Tualang tree, Koompassia excelsa
- What
- 85.76 metre(s)
- Where
- Malaysia ()
- When
A specimen of tualang tree (Koompassia excelsa), aka tapang or mengaris, located in Tawau Hills Park in Sabah on Malaysian Borneo, measured 85.76 m (281 ft 4.4 in) in February 2007. The tree was climbed and measured by tape drop by big tree hunters Tom Greenwood and Brett Mifsud.
Tualang comes from the Malay words of "tua" (old) and "helang" (eagle). This emergent tree species is a member of the legume (bean) family. As well as Borneo, it grows in the rainforests of Sumatra, southern Thailand and the Malaysian Peninsula. Local folklore has it that the tualang tree is inhabited by spirits so it is considered bad luck to cut down these giant trees.
Sabah is also home to the world's tallest living tropical tree overall: a yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana) measured by direct tape-drop was found to be 98.53 m (323 ft 3.1 in) tall on 6 January 2019. This is the average of two measurements as is standard practice when a tree is growing on uneven ground: 100.80 m (330 ft 8.5 in) tall to the low point of ground and 96.26 m (315 ft 9.8 in) to the high point of ground.
