One Of The Planet’s Oldest Trees is So Big It Has Never Been Photographed in One Image Until Now

Living in the heart of Sequoia National Park is the world’s second-largest known tree called the President. The giant sequoia is an astonishing 3,200 years old! It rises 247 feet from the ground, is 27 feet in diameter and has 2 billion leaves! If you add together all the biomass of the tree (the wood and limbs of the tree) together it is probably the biggest on the planet!

National Geographic photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols wanted to capture the majestic tree in its entirety in one photo for the world to see. But this posed some serious challenges. So he accompanied forest ecologist Steve Sillet of Humboldt State University and his colleagues into the forest. The scientists regularly climb the enormous redwoods and measure them inch by inch.

Using an array of equipment, the climbers scaled the tree and created a mosaic composed of 126 images. It took more than two weeks to take all the shots, but the results are truly awe-inspiring!

Nichols may just need to go back and take a photo again in the future because the President is still growing. It produces an estimated one cubic meter of wood per year!

Here is a short video of the making of this spectacular composite photo (which you can see below the video). They reveal the final image at minute 1:35 in the video!

The President, Third-Largest Giant Sequoia Tree In The World, California USA

'The President' is a 3200 year old tree in Sequoia National Park.