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)