The Old Dog Asks: Do You Love Trees? If You do Then You'll Love This Post!
I Started Off Investigating The History of a Majestic Old Tree But What I Found Effects Everyone's Heritage!
I have always been fascinated by gigantic, old or unusual trees. This fascination has lead me to an exciting discovery that I'd love to share with you.
Near my home in the beautiful little city of Lugano there sits a majestic Sequoiadendron gigantea (Giant Sequoia tree) which was long ago planted by the shoreline of the lake. I have admired it for 20 years and recently decided to investigate its history and compare its height and girth to other Giant Sequoias.
Here you see a picture of the tree taken with my Steemit model in order to give it scale!
My Investigation of This Tree Has Lead Me to a Wonderful Discovery!
While searching into the history of this beautiful specimen I came across a website where you can officially register and chronicle gigantic or unusual trees that are worthy of note. Monumentaltrees.com.
If you love trees you'll love the more than 50,000 photos of over 25,000 trees from all over this planet that are indexed there
Of course I joined the site and registered the beautiful tree that you see above while getting in a subtle Steemit promo as well!
Here you can see the tree as it is registered on the site monumentaltrees.com
A Little Bit About This Tree
Tree Circumference: 8.6 meters or just over 28 feet!
Tree Height: Unfortunately it was stuck by lightning in about 1996 and it lost about 1/3 of it's height. Using an old photo from 1941 I was able to use some cyclists as a scale and I estimate the height to have been 28 meters (about 91 feet) way back then!
As chronicled in the 1936 book "Flora des Südens" they once wanted to cut it down to make way for a streetcar but protesters prevented it and the streetcar tracks were built around it!
Age: Since the giant Sequoia was not “discovered “ until the California gold rush in 1833 it wasn’t introduced to or planted in Europe until 1853 and the largest trees in Europe can be found in England and Scotland. Therefore the tree that you see here was planted sometime after that, probably in the late 1800's.
The true Giant Sequoias in their native USA reach up to 87 meters (286 feet), have a circumference of 34 meters (113 feet) and live an estimated 1,800 to 2,700 years! Mine in Lugano is just a baby!
Photo from 1941. Using it I was able to estimate the height of the tree back then.
In future posts I'd like to register and share with you a few other great trees from my "neck of the woods". If you love trees and know of any special specimen why not register it at monumentaltrees.com
By doing so you can show your appreciation for these marvelous creations. Appreciation leads to preservation! Oh, and if you do register a tree why not post an article about it here on Steemit. You'll receive my upvote!
Until next time,
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
Yes, I love trees! Here's the proof (A photo I took on my visit to China):
Loving the details and character of this tree, thank you for sharing, namaste :)
That photo appears to be of a very high resolution. The shot that I see here is beautiful and tells a story about the age of the tree through its grizzled and gnarled outer bark. I would categorize it as a minimalistic shot. Do you have any pictures of this tree with a person in front of it so that we can get an idea as to its size?
No pictures with a person in front, sorry. But I've added a photo that shows more of the tree.
Great job on the quai-subtle advertisement, though for most people this one would be rather subtle in deed. I like the way you entice the reader with your motivational writing to keep reading, it is effective. Namaste :)
I alway enjoy your comments and really appreciate you having a look at my articles!
I guess I wouldn't be personally planting more than 1000 of them if I didn't like them. Nice post!
Fantastic article!
I love trees and often marvel at their beauty, especially the giant sequoias. They put everything into perspective, their massive size makes me realize how small and insignificant some of my problems are.
Thanks also for that great site, I'm thinking about chronicling some trees myself.
That is an amazing tree! I have some very beautiful and historical trees in my neck of the woods that don't seem to be registered on the monumental trees website. Thanks for sharing that, it is nice for these trees to have some recognition.
Go for it and please get back to me once they are registered I'd like to take a look!
Trees are life, and look beautiful too! In our tradition we say, look after the tree like your own father!
Good advice! What tradition does that come from? I love it!
I live in Sikkim, in the himalayas, where nature is part of life and never forgotten or overlooked!
Very cool! My brother lived there for years in Kulu Valley.
nice post
WOW
GOTTA LOVE THOSE PICTURES
ON YOUR POST HERE
VERY REAL
UPVOTED FOR SURE!!!!
Wow!...Gorgeous?..reminds us of what to think about and appreciate more often...
Thanks a lot. I took the pictures and wrote the article with a great sense of fun and passion!
Great job now giant tree and steemit logo is on Monumentaltrees.com.
A true tree hugger ;) I do the same thing in hugging trees but not just any tree. The really big ones. :). Ok, that sounds kind of weird but hey. Good website and research.
I think it must be inborn this fascination with trees! Thanks for looking stand replying!