The Greatest Trees in the World

This is a list of the 12 most magnificent and famous tree species in the world and their greatest specimens. I have also posted an expanded version of this post on my Ten Thousand Trees Blog that has pictures of each tree.

Largest tree by Volume - Giant Sequoia

• General Sherman tree
  
• Sequoiadendron giganteum
• Volume of trunk 52,500 cu. ft. (1,486.6 cu.m.)
• runner-up General Grant tree
  

Tallest tree - Coastal Redwood

• Hyperion tree
• Sequoia sempervirens
• height 379 feet (115.5 meters)
• runner-up the Stratosphere Giant

Largest Spread - Bengal Fig

• Great Banyan at Calcutta
• Ficus Benghalensis-L
• spread - 3.7 acres (1.5 hectares) with 2880 prop roots
• runner-up Sai-ngam banyan tree in Thailand

Oldest Individual tree - Bristlecone Pine

• Methuselah tree
• Pinus longaeva
• age 4,840 years
• (the Jomon Sugi tree has been reported to be older (7,200 years) but more conservative estimates date it at 2,200 years old)

Largest Girth - Montezuma Cypress

• Árbol del Tule (Oaxaca, Mexico)
• Taxodium mucronatum
• 11.62 meters in diameter
  
• circumference of 36.2 m

Greatest Baobab - Adansonia digitata

• Sunland Baobab
• Adansonia digitata
• circumference of 46,8m (a Baobab´s girth expands and contracts depending on how much water it is holding . . . it is assumed that this measurement reflects the girth at its point of greatest expansion)
• runner-up - Chapman´s Baobab

Tallest Flowering Tree - Mountain Ash

• Icarus Dream (Andromeda, Tasmania)
• Eucalyptus regnans
• Height 97 metres (318 feet)
• Alternate tree - Trident Tree (96.5 meters)

Largest and oldest clonal colony - Quacking Aspen

• Pando tree (Utah, USA)
• Populus tremuloides
• 107 acres (43 hectares) and approx 47,000 stems
• (Clonal colonies are groupings of "trees" (in reality stems) that are all part of a single living organism)

Most Revered tree - Sacred Fig (Bo, Bodhi, Pipal)

• Sri Maha Bodhi (Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka)
• Ficus religiosa
• Propagated from the Bodhi tree
• A descendant of the tree under which Buddha is thought to have received his enlightenment.

Most Resistant tree - Mesquite

• The Tree of Life (Bahrain)
• Located out in the desert 1.2 miles (two kilometers) from the Jebel Dukhan
• Source of water unknown
  

Most Important in History - Cedar of Lebanon

• Cedars of Lebanon
• Cedrus libani
  
• Mentioned in many ancient texts such as the Bible and the Koran
• Important to many ancient civilizations such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Arabs etc.

Greatest "Living Fossil" tree - Dragon tree

• El Drago Milenario (Santa Cruz de Tenerife)
  
• Dracaena draco
• over 1000 years old

More trees of renown...
Garden of Gethsemane Olive trees
Fortingall Yew
Tane Mahuta
Te Matua Ngahere
Angel Oak Tree
Grandidier's Baobab
Giant Java Willow
Meiji Shrine Wishing tree
Alishan Sacred Tree II - Taiwan
900 year old Pine tree in Italy
Tree climbed by one million people!