The President

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Tribe base of the President

The President Tree is an approximately 3200 year old giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ) in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park at an altitude of almost 2180 m on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada northeast of Visalia in the US state of California . The tree was named President in 1923 in memory of US President Warren G. Harding, who died in the same year .

Dimensions

The tree, which is over 73 meters (240.9  feet ) high, has a trunk circumference of more than 28 meters (93 ft ) at the bottom  and, with a trunk volume of around  1,280 cubic meters (45,148  cft ), is the third largest living giant sequoia - after the General Sherman Tree ( approx. 1490 m³) and the General Grant Tree (approx. 1320 m³). If the crown is also taken into account, it can be considered the second largest tree on earth with its above-ground mass of around 54,000  cubic feet (1530 m³).

The tree was examined and measured in detail as part of the long-term monitoring project Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative . The diameter of the trunk is over 8.2 m (27 ft) at the bottom, over 7 m (23.1 ft) at chest height ( BHD ), 5.2 m (16.9 ft) at 18 meters and 55 meters Height still 3.5 m (11.6 ft). The top 12 meters of the trunk died centuries ago after a lightning strike. The four main branches go from the trunk at a height of about 37 meters, with diameters of 1.5 to 2.5 m, and are up to 18 m long. In total, the tree has over 500 branches and twigs with a foliage of around 2 billion needles. For reproduction it produces around 82,000 cones with a total of around 16.4 million seeds.

Although the tree reached its current height about a millennium ago, its wood volume continues to increase: the trunk diameter increases and the crown becomes more expansive. The annual growth of wood even increases with age, so that more carbon dioxide is stored and during the short 6-month growth period per season, almost one cubic meter of wood is currently growing.

Location of the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park

neighborhood

In the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park, near the tree called The President , there are other imposing specimens of ancient giant sequoias such as the Chief Sequoyah Tree, named after Sequoyah in 1928, a few meters up the slope. Several others are in small groves close to each other, the Senate - after the United States Senate - named group at the same height less than 100 meters away and, a little further away down the slope, the house - after the House of Representatives - called Group. A three kilometer long popular circular hiking trail, the so-called Congress Trail , connects them with one another and leads about 900 m north to the General Sherman Tree.

  • The President Tree

  • Chief Sequoyah Tree

  • The Senate Group

  • The House Group

  • General Sherman Tree

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Giant redwood dedicated to memory of late president . In: National Lumber Bulletin , Sep. 7, 1923, p. 13. 
  2. ^ National Park Service ( Sequoia & Kings Canyon ): Giant Sequoias. With a list of the 30 largest giant sequoias, revised status 2012 - The Largest Giant Sequoias by Trunk Volume. (PDF; 0.2 MB; English).
  3. ↑ David Quammen: Forest Giant. In: National Geographic . December 1, 2012, accessed February 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Tracie Cone: World's 2nd-biggest tree is really No. 3, new study finds. In: The Press Democrat. December 1, 2012, accessed March 5, 2020 .

literature

Web links

Coordinates: 36 ° 34 '24.3 "  N , 118 ° 45' 0.4"  W.