Greatest circumference of a living tree (multiple trunks)

The greatest circumference of a living tree (multiple trunks) is 52.4 m (171 ft 11 in) for “Il Castagno dei Cento Cavalli” (“The Tree of One Hundred Horses”), a European chestnut (Castanea sativa) located in Sant’Alfio, Catania, Italy, as measured on 29 March 2026.

This record excludes colonies of trees with multiple stems/trunk (which spread via suckers/ramets) or species like banyans that support themselves with prop roots – the tree must be genetically homogenous and growing from a single root plate/stump.

The circumference of each of the One Hundred Horses chestnut’s three major trunks was also measured on the same day, logged at 21.7 m (71 ft 2 in), 11.8 m (38 ft 9 in) and 21.4 m (70 ft 3 in). In aggregate, this equalled a slightly greater total of 54.9 m (180 ft 1 in).

All of the measurements, which were conducted with a tape at ground level, were carried out by Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Palermo, Tommaso La Mantia, botanist/plant ecologist Pietro Minissale of the University of Catania and recorded by videographer Turi Caggegi.

The earliest written account of a large chestnut tree on this site in Sicily dates back to 1594, but researchers have posited that the tree could be at least 2,268 years old, meaning it pre-dates the Roman Empire; some estimates suggest it could be even older, in excess of 3,000 years old. This means that Il Castagno dei Cento Cavalli is a contender to be the oldest chestnut tree in the world, though a rigorous method like carbon-dating has yet to be applied to definitively confirm its true age.

Although Il Castagno dei Cento Cavalli now comprises three separate trunks (albeit all sprouting from the original stump/root base), in the late 18th century the ancient chestnut’s more intact single trunk was reported to have a circumference of 57.9 m (190 ft), which would be the greatest known tree girth ever. Vandalism, local volcanic activity of Mount Etna, as well as diseases and pests (such as gall-wasp damage) over the tree’s long life have resulted in it now existing in three major pieces. Genetic testing in the 2020s confirmed that all elements of the tree share the same DNA and originated from the same seed.

The living tree with the largest single trunk, meanwhile, is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) named “El Árbol del Tule”, standing 35.4 m (116 ft 1 in) tall in Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2005, a tape stretched around the circumference at a height of 1.3 m (DBH; diameter at breast height) read 36.18 m (118 ft 8.4 in), which translates to a diameter of 1,151.6 cm (37 ft 9.4 in). However, the trunk is strongly elliptical and has large buttresses, so the actual DBH cross-sectional area (as calculated from a 3D model of the tree base) is 71.44 m2 (768.97 sq ft), which translates to a functional diameter of 953.8 cm (31 ft 3.5 in).

Often, the largest tree girths are attributed to African baobab trees (Adansonia digitata), with anecdotal circumference measurements of 43 m (141 ft). However, measurers need to make sure that it is indeed one mass (as the Montezuma is) rather than several trees that have fused together over time.

El Árbol del Tule and baobabs grow on flat ground, so the difference between the cross-section area of the footprint (at ground level) and breast height (1.3 m – the height most people use to compare diameters) is small. However, giant conifers of both Sequoia and Sequoiadendron (specimens of which hold the current records for tallest living tree and greatest volume of a living tree, respectively) can grow on slopes (sometimes very steep slopes), so that the difference between the footprint and the horizontal diameter measurement is great. The Boole Tree Sequoiadendron in Giant Sequoia National Monument in California, USA, provides a good example – the difference between high point of ground and low point of ground is 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in), so there is a great difference between the footprint area (87.14 m2/937.97 sq ft – greater than that of El Árbol del Tule) and the horizontal area at high point of ground (63.33 m2/681.68 sq ft – less than that of El Árbol del Tule).