The poster from December’s National Geographic of one of the worlds largest trees – President, a member of the Sequoia-denron giganteum species, or a giant sequoia redwood – is now hanging on the wall of my new apartment. The two scientists measuring the tree in the picture barely register among the massive scale of the tree, appearing rather as tiny looking lady bugs in their red jackets. Truly a beast among trees, here are five facts about President.
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The tree has a diameter of 27 feet (8.2m) at its base and some 2 billion leaves.
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247 feet (75.3m) in height, its four massive limbs are as big as normal trees.
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President has been standing watch for at least 3,200 years.
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82, 000 pine cones dot its branches, each one about as big as a chicken’s egg and holding around 200 seeds.
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Even at such an old age, the huge tree is still adding to its 54,000 cubic feet of wood and growing quickly by inhaling large breaths of CO2. (Keep breathing, President, we need your help).
[Image by www.michaelnicknichols.com]