The General Sherman Tree is located in Sequoia National Park in the USA, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains (California).
This tree is also the largest living creature on the planet. The height of the giant General Sherman tree is more than 83 meters, the circumference of its trunk is more than 24 meters, and the circumference of its crown is as much as 33 meters.
In the nineteenth century, explorer John Muir called the area where the famous tree grows the “Giant Forest” when he discovered giant sequoias. The name of this part of the park, "Giant Forest", remains to this day. Many tourists describe the General Sherman tree, which is striking in its size, as a red-orange “rock”, the top of which is impossible to see.
Tourists specifically come to the park to see the General Sherman tree, named after Civil War hero General William Sherman, and to take photos. Next to the sequoia they seem so fragile and small.
For a long time it was believed that the General Sherman tree was over three thousand years old, but recent research has determined its exact age - exactly two thousand years. This means that this is not the oldest tree in the world.
The oldest tree in the world, a special species of California pine, was 4,484 years old when it was cut down in 1965. Sequoia trees that were about 3,000 years old were also cut down. It is believed that 5,000 trees still exist on Earth.
In the winter of 2006, the General Sherman tree lost part of its crown, the largest branch of the tree fell off, the diameter of which was about two meters and the length was about 30 meters
When the branches fell to the ground, the fence around the tree and the road leading to it were destroyed. Even after this, General Sherman's tree did not lose its status as the largest tree on the planet.
There is a special path leading to General Sherman's tree, and even people with disabilities can see this miracle. At the end of the path there are brick tiles, which show where the roots of the tree reach.
Each year the giant's trunk grows nearly 1.5 cm in diameter. The General Sherman tree is still growing and, according to the California State Park website, is adding enough wood each year to fill a five or six-room house.
Here is a sequoiadendron - the largest and oldest tree on our planet.
Mature trees reach a height of up to 100 meters with a trunk diameter of 10-12 m. The oldest giant sequoia at the moment has an age of 3200 years, established by annual rings.
