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Some tree species live to a tremendous age. The oldest living things in the world are trees, growing at amazing altitudes in the drier regions of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA. These are the bristle cone pines, Pinus aristat, which may be up to 5000 years old. They are not large trees – never more than about 12 m high.
However, the giant sequoias and redwoods of California are species that can reach a great age – up to 4000 years – and are also possibly the most massive of all living land species.
New Zealand’s kauri trees are often very old and large. Ring counts confirm that some of the largest existing trees are over 2000 years old and the massive Mercury Bay tree was possibly 4000 plus years old.
The Giant Kauri
The largest kauri ever accurately measured was the great ‘Kairaru’ located between the Hokianga and Kaipara Harbours in the Tutamoe forest. When measured by Crown Lands Ranger, Henry Wilson, in 1860, it was 20.1 m in diameter and 30.5 m to the first branch. Unfortunately this great tree was lost during one of a series of disastrous fires that swept through the area in the 1890’s. Were it still alive it would certainly match the stem wood content of the largest of the Californian sequoias.
‘Tane Mahuta’ is the biggest kauri standing today. It has a girth of 13.8 m, 18 m to the first branch and has a total height of 52 m. Its trunk volume has been estimated as 245 m3. Just compare that with the common plantation pine tree that yields 2.5-3 m3 when felled at maturity!
| Top 10 Living Kauri |
| Rank |
Name |
Location |
Girth |
Stem Volume |
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| No 1 |
Tane Mahuta |
Waipoua Forest |
13.8m |
245m3 |
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| No 2 |
Te Matua Ngahere |
Waipoua Forest |
16.5m |
210m3 |
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| No 3 |
McGregor Tree |
Waipoua Forest |
13.7m |
171m3 |
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| No 4 |
Te Tangi o Te Tui |
Puketi Forest |
12.4m |
155m3 |
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| No 5 |
Moetangi 1 |
Warawara Forest |
11.1m |
149m3 |
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| No 6 |
Tanenui |
Manaia Forest |
10.1m |
136m3 |
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| No 7 |
Yakas Tree |
Waipoua Forest |
12.3m |
134m3 |
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| No 8 |
Hokianga |
Omahuta Forest |
9.6m |
131m3 |
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| No 9 |
Tairua 1 |
Coromandel |
9.8m |
129m3 |
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| No 10 |
Moetangi 2 |
Warawara Forest |
10.65m |
119m3 |
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At least 10 more trees have been measured as having more than 100m3 in their stems.
For more information about the Puketi Forest, visit: www.puketi.org.nz
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