Interesting tree facts

September 7, 2009 | In: Nature Facts

Found in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California, the oldest tree recognized is a Redwood known as Eternal God. The tree is believed to be 12,000 years old, although it is argued as being only 7,000 years old, which still makes it the oldest. (source)

General Sherman is the name of a Giant Sequoia with a height of 275 feet (83.8 metres).In 1879, it was named after American Civil War general, William Tecumseh Sherman, by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman.

The tallest living tree stands at 112 meters (367 feet, 6 in.), or five stories higher than the Statue of Liberty. It is a Mendocino Tree, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) found at Montgomery State Reserve near Ukiah, California, USA. (source)

One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.

According to the last forest inventory, there are almost 247 billion trees over 1 inch in diameter in the U.S.

Trees lower air temperature by evaporating water in their leaves.

Bamboo, although often tree like, is actually not a species of tree.

Trees get water to their leaves through an elaborate system of tubes only a few microns wide.

These narrow tubes, called “xylem”, are tiny pipelines running from the roots of the tree all the way to its leaves. These tubes are made from the leftover cell walls of dead cells, so each tube is only one cell wide.

At the top of the tubes, water evaporates off the surface of the leaves, after which the water below rises to replace it. This is due to two effects: the attraction of the water to the xylem walls and the suction caused by the evaporation. This process continues down through the entire tree and draws more water out of the soil.