EUCALYPTUS GIANTS: FASTEST FATTEST CULTIVATED TREES?
 
   
     
 
 
     
Eucalyptus regnans / Giant Mountain Ash at Mount Field National Park / Eucalipto regnans / Eucalipto gigante en Mount Field (Tasmania) / Eucaliptos gigantes en Australia, Nueva Zelanda, España, Portugal / Giant Eucalyptus in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal
         
                 
     
Giant specimens of Eucalyptus trees can be found in old growth forests across their natural habitats in Australia with some frequency, yielding impressive records of height, diameter, girth and volume. But these travelling trees have established themselves as ornamental plants or as part of the array of forestry species cultivated overseas for more than two centuries. Where a good match of species to site was achieved, and circumstances have favoured non disturbed specimens for more than one century, examples of giant trees can be found. Giants in height, as the Karri Knight, serious contender to the "tallest tree in Europe" title, or the Chavín Natural Monument, serious contender to the "tallest tree grove in Europe". But they can also be giants in width. Two examples of the latest are shown here. They are not the fattest trees in their respective areas of the world, but possibly the fastest fattest ones. And these "bigfoot" specimens are even more interesting because of living literally at opposite sides of the world.
         
 
 
 
Giant Eucalyptus globulus in Spain  / Giant Eucalyptus delegatensis in New Zealand / Giant Eucalyptus regnans in Tasmania / Eucalipto globulus gigante en Galicia, España / Roble de Tasmania Gigante en Nueva Zelanda / Roble de Tasmania Gigante en Australia
 
 
 
     
Mount Field Giant Eucalyptus regnans image courtesy Mark David (A Few Big Australian Trees, Mark David Illustration)
 
     
Mount Field Giant Eucalyptus regnans image courtesy Serge Aubert (Jardin Botanique Alpin du Lautaret, Station Alpine, Université Joseph Fourier)
 
     
Pazo de Rubianes Giant Eucalyptus globulus image courtesy Manuel Touza Vázquez (Centro de Investigación y Servicios Tecnológicos de la Madera de Galicia, CIS-Madeira)
 
     
Hagley Park's Giant Eucalyptus delegatensis image courtesy Barbara Partee & Vladimir Borschev (Department of Linguistics, University of Massachussets)
 
 
 
                 
               
                 
 
 
     
If interested in visiting monumental Eucalyptus in Northwestern Spain & Portugal just contact us. We are always glad to go back to those places!
 
                 
       
© 2007 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado - GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal