The world's largest tropical tree ever recorded is a giant, measuring 100.8 meters tall, ranging from ground to sky – a height of more than five butt bowling alleys.
According to scientists from the United Kingdom and Malaysia, this tree, which is probably also the tallest flowering plant in the world, lives in a rainforest in Sabah, in the state of Borneo, Malaysia. It's so amazing that it's no wonder that scientists have dubbed it "Menara", the Malay word for "tower".
For those who can not personally travel to Borneo, Malaysia, researchers have created a 3D tree model, which users can toggle and tweak online. [Nature’s Giants: Photos of the Tallest Trees on Earth]
Menara LiDAR + UAV model by Alexander Shenkin on Sketchfab
By studying Menara, researchers hope to understand how trees grow so high, and if factors prevent them from growing, they said.
Menara belongs to a species of tropical tree known as yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana), a member of the dipterocarp family that thrives in the humid rainforest of the humid lowlands of Southeast Asia. The record holders of the highest tropical tree came from this region and from Shorea kind.
The team discovered Menara using laser technology known as detection and telemetry, or lidar. Essentially, a plane carrying a lidar device flew over laser pulses that were shot down and then reflected when they touched the canopy and the ground, providing data for a topological map.
After reviewing the data, the researchers went to Menara in August 2018. They then scanned the tree with a terrestrial laser to create high-resolution 3D images. They also captured images from above with a drone. Local climber Unding Jami of the South East Asian Rainforest Research Partnership climbed the tree in January 2019 to measure its exact height using a tape measure.
"It was a scary climb, so windy, as the nearest trees are very far apart," Jami said in a statement. "But honestly, the view from the top was amazing, I do not know what to say except that it was really amazing!"
Jami's feat reveals that Menara is probably the tallest flowering plant in the world because it is higher than the previous record holder; a eucalyptus (Eucalyptus regnans) in Tasmania, its height is 99.6 m (326 feet).
Not to mention its roots, Menara weighs nearly 179,700 pounds. (81,500 kilograms). But only 5% of its mass comes from its crown 40 meters wide. The remaining 95% are in the trunk, the researchers said. In addition, the stem is extremely straight and its center of gravity is 28 feet above the ground, only 0.6 meters from its central vertical axis. This indicates that the tree is very symmetrical and well balanced, even though it is sitting on a slope, the researchers said.
That said, Menara may be vulnerable to high winds, but so far, it has been spared, thanks to its protected location in a valley, the researchers said.
Despite the immense height of the tree, this one has to face a difficult battle: several factors can prevent trees such as Menara from growing, such as the challenge represented by the tree that bears the tree. water up to its highest branches. And while there may be some tall, tropical trees, they are probably not much larger than Menara.
"Given the evidence we have found on the mechanical stresses caused by the wind, it is unlikely that a new tree will be much larger," said Yadvinder Malhi, professor of ecosystem science at the University of Michigan. University of Oxford in the UK, in a statement. .
Originally published on Science live.
