Have you ever seen a pine cone? Here in California, you can find them on the ground, and they make you wonder how big the trees are that they come from. There are some really huge trees in the world! Alejandro has a question about this, so let’s find out more.
Alejandro asked, “What’s the biggest tree in the world?” That’s a great question! When I was little, I loved the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, where a giant beanstalk grows up into the sky. It made me think about how big trees can be in real life. But what’s the biggest tree in the world?
To find out which tree is the biggest, we have to explore all over the world. Trees are everywhere, and they can be very different from each other. Some trees have colorful bark, like the Rainbow Eucalyptus from Southeast Asia. Others, like the Kapok tree, have thorns. There’s even a tree in Brazil called the Jabuticaba that grows fruit on its trunk!
Some trees are so big that people can live inside them! The Baobab tree in Africa and the Sitka Spruce in Canada are examples of really big trees. But when we talk about the biggest tree, we could mean different things. Do we mean the tree that’s the widest, the tallest, or the heaviest?
The widest tree in the world is called El Tule, found in Mexico. It’s a type of Cypress tree, and its trunk is as long as a school bus!
The heaviest trees are the Giant Sequoias, found in Sequoia National Park in California. The largest one is named General Sherman, and it’s the biggest living thing on Earth!
The tallest trees are the Redwoods, also found in California. One Redwood tree is so wide that a car can drive through it! The tallest Redwood is 380 feet tall, which is really, really high!
So, to find the biggest tree in the world, we have to explore and learn about different kinds of trees. The tallest and heaviest trees are the Redwoods and Sequoias in California. Thanks, Alejandro, for the great question!
Stay curious and keep exploring the amazing world of trees!
Tree Measurement Adventure: Go outside with a tape measure or a piece of string and measure the circumference of a tree near your home or school. Compare it to the size of El Tule, the widest tree in the world. How many times bigger is El Tule than your tree? Draw a picture of your tree and El Tule side by side to see the difference!
Tree Observation Journal: Start a tree observation journal. Pick a tree you see every day and write down or draw what you notice about it. Does it have any special features like colorful bark or fruit? How does it change with the seasons? Share your observations with your class and see if anyone else has noticed similar things about their trees.
Build Your Own Tree: Using craft materials like paper towel rolls, construction paper, and markers, create a model of one of the big trees mentioned in the article. Will you make a Giant Sequoia, a Redwood, or El Tule? Think about what makes your tree special and share your creation with your family or friends. Explain why you chose that tree and what you learned about it.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(cellphone ringing) – Hi, it’s Doug. You’ve seen pine cones before, right? Here in California in the mountains, you can find pine cones on the ground like this. It makes you wonder how big the pine tree is that something like this comes from. There are some incredibly huge trees out there in the world. Someone named Alejandro has a question about this. Let’s give them a call now. (cellphone ringing) – Hi Doug. – Hi Alejandro. – I have a question for you. What’s the biggest tree in the world? – That’s a great question. When I was a little boy, one of the first stories a grownup ever read to me was the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack finds some magic beans that grow into a giant beanstalk that he can climb high up into the sky. I remember thinking, “Wow, that would be so cool.” I also remember seeing cartoons that had trees so big around that people could live inside of them. Trees in real life are definitely something we think of as being big and tall, but what’s the biggest? Is there a real-life version of these cartoons and fairy tales?
For a question like what’s the biggest for anything, you or I could always just search the internet or look it up in a book or maybe ask an adult who knows. But if you just found the answer and that was it, that would leave out one of the best parts, which is how do we even know the answer to this question? It’s not like you can just go up to a tree and ask it, “Hey, do you happen to know what the biggest tree in the world is?”
Now, you might have seen some big trees near where you live, but there are trees growing on almost every continent on Earth. So in order to figure out which one is the biggest, we had to explore all around the world. It can be tempting to think trees are just trees. They’re all pretty similar. They’ve got bark, they’ve got leaves, they grow tall, cool. But as people have explored all over the Earth, one of the most surprising things we found out is just how different trees can be, and some of them are amazing.
This one called Rainbow Eucalyptus from Southeast Asia has some of the most colorful bark of any tree in the world, or this one called a Kapok tree, which has thorns growing on the side. And check out this tree called a Jabuticaba tree from Brazil. It grows shiny black fruits not just on its branches but all up and down its trunk. It’s so unusual. But while all of these trees are amazing, none of them are anywhere close to making the list of what we could consider some of the biggest trees in the world.
Now for that, we have to consider trees like the Baobab tree of Africa. Look at that! It doesn’t even look real, but it is. Or check out the Sitka Spruce. Lots of these trees grow along the Western Coast of Canada. Trees like these are big enough that you could live inside one. In old ones that have gotten hollowed out over time, some people have done just that.
But now wait a second because here’s a tree in New Zealand called a Kauri tree. Which one looks bigger to you? A Baobab or a Kauri tree? Seeing big trees like this side by side makes you realize that when we talk about what’s the biggest tree, we could mean different things. What are some of the different ways someone could mean biggest when they’re talking about the biggest tree in the world?
Before I say anything more, what ideas do you have? Now would be a good time to pause the video if you want to think about it. Okay, you ready? Well, seeing some of these examples helps us realize it matters what we mean when we say the biggest tree in the world. We could mean the tree that’s the biggest around, like the size of its trunk. We could mean the tallest tree in the world. Or we could even mean the heaviest tree in the world. And it turns out there is not one tree that holds the record for all of these. Different kinds of trees hold the record for each.
Baobabs and Kauri trees are definitely big around, but they’re not the biggest. That award goes to this tree in Mexico, named El Tule, found in the state of Oaxaca. It’s a type of tree called a Cypress. From one side of its trunk to the other, this tree’s trunk is the length of an entire school bus.
So what about the heaviest and tallest trees in the world? Well, even though they’re two different kinds of trees, they’re both found in the same place, the US State of California. In little parts spread around California, you can find entire forests of these trees growing. There’s even two different national parks. One of them, Sequoia National Park, is home to the heaviest trees in the world, the Giant Sequoia. This photo gives you a sense of just how huge a Sequoia tree is. Not only are these trees incredibly tall, they’re also incredibly wide, which is what makes them so heavy.
The largest Sequoia tree of them all, a tree people have named General Sherman, currently holds the world’s record for being the largest living organism on Earth. And that leaves, last but not least, the tallest trees in the world. These are Redwoods. They’re a cousin of the Sequoia. They look similar, and you can even see they get pretty wide. This Redwood tree in the town of Leggett, California, is so wide that an entire car can drive through it. This tunnel was carved into the tree about 100 years ago. Luckily, the tree is still alive, but carving tunnels like this isn’t something people do anymore as it could harm the tree.
Now, while Redwood trees don’t get quite as wide across as Sequoias, they do get taller. The tallest tree in the world, found in Redwood National Park, is 380 feet tall. This gives you a sense of just how big that is.
So in summary, to figure out what the biggest tree in the world is, we have to go out and explore. There are amazing huge trees found all over the world, with the tallest and heaviest ones known being the Redwoods and Sequoias from California, USA. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Alejandro, for asking it.
Now, for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent into us that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video is done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: Who invented rubber? Can animals laugh? Or how does a clam make a pearl? So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see you next week.
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