General Sherman The Largest Tree on Earth

 

General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. It is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth. The General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood). Nor is it the widest (both the largest and have a greater diameter), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to a Great Basin bristlecone pine). With a height of 83.8 meters (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 m (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 m³ (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of 2,300–2,700 years, it is nevertheless among the tallest, widest and longest-lived of all trees on the planet. While the General Sherman is the largest currently living tree, it is not the largest tree known to humans. The Crannell Creek Giant, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) near Trinidad, California, is estimated to have been 15 to 25% larger than the General Sherman tree by volume. The tree was cut down in the mid-1940s.

In 1879, the General Sherman was named after the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman. In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. One result of this process was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.