Tallest Pine

On January 3, 2011, Mario Vaden and Michael Taylor found four very tall Ponderosa pines in the Siskiyou National Forest of southern Oregon; each is tall enough to be a new world's tallest pine (of any species). At 268 feet, the tallest is the new tallest pine tree in the world! They haven’t scoured the area so there may be even taller record-breaking pines thriving in the forest.

Michael Taylor is one of the two co-discoverers of Hyperion, a coast redwood and the world's tallest tree of any kind. He's been at this tree adventure and hunting for at least two decades. Mario Vaden is a Portland-area arborist and a big tree hunting enthusiast.

Mario writes: “For a size comparison, the 268 foot pine is as tall or taller than most of the coast redwoods in the 559 acres of Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, Calif. A few sources list 258 feet as the tallest redwood in Muir Woods, which would put the four tallest Ponderosa above that redwood park's tallest Sequoia sempervirens. There are taller redwoods in other parks, but that still gives an appreciable height comparison for the thousands of visitors who have seen that national monument park.”

According to Wikipedia, the following are now accepted as the top ten tallest reliably measured species:

1. Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens): 379.1 ft, Redwood National Park, Calif.
2. Australian Mountain-ash (Eucalyptus regnans): 326.8 ft, south of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
3. Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii): 326.1 ft, Brummit Creek, Coos County, Ore.
4. Philippine rosewood (Petersianthus quadrialatus): 317.9 ft, Agusan del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines (it is possible that it is slightly lower, because the height might include Christmas decorations on the top of the tree)
5. Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis): 317.3 ft, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Calif.
6. Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum): 311.4 ft, Redwood Mountain Grove, Kings Canyon National Park, Calif.
7. Tasmanian Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus): 297.6 ft, Tasmania, Australia
8. Manna Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis): 292 ft, Evercreech Forest Reserve, Tasmania, Australia
9. Shorea faguetiana: 289.7 ft Tawau Hills National Park, in Sabah on the island of Borneo
10. Alpine Ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis): 288.4 ft, Tasmania, Australia

Click here for more details about Mario and Michael’s tall tree discovery. Be sure to check out Mario’s photos of the California coast redwoods. He has beautiful photos of one of my favorite places on earth. If you’ve never hugged a redwood in its native environment, put it on your “bucket” list of things to do. Camping as a child in a redwood forest, I believed in “the little people” and fairies. It’s a magical place. (I know I’m gushing but I can’t help myself.) I insist. You MUST GO!