Fastest-growing tree (by height)
Who
Moluccan albizia, Falcataria moluccana
What
10.74 / 13 months metre(s)
Where
Malaysia ()

What you consider the fastest-growing tree of course depends on the timeframe or height threshold you place down as parameters. The prime contenders would have to be tree species grown in short-rotation plantations in the tropics, specifically for their rapid growth. These number among them genera such as Albizia, Casuarina, Eucalyptus, Leucaena, Paulownia and Populus. A frontrunner for the record has to be the Moluccan albizia (Falcataria moluccana), a tree planted widely throughout south-east Asia for timber. It has been documented reaching 10.74 m (35 ft 2.8 in) after 13 months (in Sabah, Malaysia) - a rate of 0.82 m (2 ft 8.3 in) per month; 20.1 m (65 ft 11.3 in) in four years (in Pare, East Java, Indonesia); and 36.2 m (118 ft 9.2 in) after 12 years (in Ciamis, West Java, Indonesia). Other studies have suggested that this species can obtain an average daily growth gain of 2.5 cm (1 in).


Former scientific names of this complex mimosa include: Adenanthera falcata, Adenanthera falcataria, Albizia falcata, Albizia falcataria, Albizia moluccana and Paraserianthes falcataria.

There are reports of the empress or foxglove tree (Paulownia tomentosa), named after its purple foxglove-like flowers, growing 6 m (98 ft) in its first year, and as much as 30 cm (12 in) in three weeks.

The shortest time a tree has taken to reach 90 m (295 ft) tall is 79 years. In Victoria, Australia, there were extensive fires in both 1926 and 1939, and many people have been tracking very fast-growing swamp gum, aka mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) that came up in the aftermath. In October 2018, champion tree measurers Brett Mifsud and Tom Greenwood climbed and measured by direct tape-drop a tree born following the 1939 bushfires, named Meliades, in the Toolangi State Forest, Victoria, that measured 90.69 m (297 ft 6.5 in) tall.