Natural Environment Blog

The world’s tallest known hardwood tree has been found in Tasmania, Australia.

The tree, dubbed Centurion, is a eucalyptus tree (or eucalyptus regnans), standing at 101 meters tall. 

Forestry Tasmania managing director Bob Gordon says, “It is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 metres tall”.  

Actually, Centurion has broken two records. It is also the tallest flowering plant in the world.

According to some news reports, Centurion is the second tallest tree in the world - second only to this giant redwood. But I beg to differ. I can name 15 redwoods that are taller than Centurion. 

But not to take anything away from Centurion. Centurion is a hardwood tree. The giant California redwoods are softwood trees. Also, Centurion is classified as a flowering plant (and the tallest a that!).

Centurion is not the only tall eucalyptus tree to be seen in Australia. Eucalyptus trees are amongst the tallest trees ever recorded. The challenge these days, is to allow them to grow to their full potential without chopping them down.

Centurion, which measures 405 centimeters in diameter, is located about 5 kilometers from Tahune Airwalk, a popular tourist walk through the tree tops. Forestry Tasmania plan to create a boardwalk to Centurion so that the public can view the massive tree.

About the Name “Centurion”

A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army in charge of 100 soldiers. Well, to be precise, centurions initially commanded a centuria, or “century” of 100 soldiers. Later, they commanded 60 men. Then this number rose to 80 soldiers.

Let’s hope that Centurion (the tree) doesn’t lose the number of trees its in charge of!

I remember, as a kid, being fascinated in world records. For some reason, I loved reading about anything that was the biggest, fastest, longest, oldest, tallest… anything that made it stand out from the rest of the pack.

Now many years later, I still remember reading that the tallest tree was a California redwood. And if memory serves me correctly, the 2nd tallest was also a California redwood. I’ve now learned that these are also known by other names - such as Coast redwood, redwood, coastal sequoia, palo colorado, giant redwood, and of course, it’s technical name of Sequoia sempervirens.

So, given that there are so many tall California redwoods, I decided to search for the top 10 redwood trees. What I ended up with was a list of the top 15 tallest redwoods.

These were all measured by tape drop and/or Criterion 400 laser surveyor. The tape drop is the most accurate method of measuring a tree. You can see the tape drop in action on the tallest tree in the world.

There’s little argument that the California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living trees on our planet. These trees often grow to more than 100 meters tall.

In August 2006, a new “tallest tree in the world” was found. Once again, it was a California redwood, and it’s location was Redwood Forest ( Redwood National Park, California). This tree has been named “Hyperion” (from Greek mythology) and stands 115.55 meters (379.1 feet) tall!

How did they Measure the Tree?

The most accurate way of measuring a tall tree like Hyperion is to climb to the top, and drop a weighted tape measure. And that’s exactly what Steve Sillett did. Here’s a 2 part video of Steve measuring the world’s tallest tree for The Guinness Book of World Records. This video footage was taken for National Geographic.

Part 1:

Part 2:
And here’s Jim Speckler measuring the same tree:

So there you have it, the world’s tallest tree - or should I say, the world’s tallest, measured, tree!