Triarius (tree) facts for kids
The Triarius is a truly massive tree found in southern Tasmania, Australia. It's a type of Eucalyptus regnans, also known as a Mountain Ash or Swamp Gum. These trees are some of the tallest flowering plants on Earth!
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What is the Triarius Tree?
The Triarius is a giant among trees. In 2010, experts measured it to be about 86.5 metres (284 ft) tall. That's like stacking 20 school buses on top of each other! Its trunk was 3.9 metres (13 ft) wide, which is wider than a small car. The wood in its trunk alone was about 219 cubic metres (7,700 cu ft), enough to fill many swimming pools.
How Was This Giant Tree Found?
The Triarius tree was discovered in August 2008. It wasn't found by someone walking through the forest. Instead, employees from Forestry Tasmania found it using special technology. They were looking at data from a system called LiDAR. LiDAR uses lasers to create detailed maps of the land and everything on it, including tall trees. This helped them spot the Triarius from above!
A Lucky Survivor
The Triarius tree lives in a secondary forest. This means the forest around it has grown back after being cut down or damaged in the past. It's quite amazing that the Triarius survived. It managed to avoid both logging (when trees are cut down for wood) and big forest fires. It was a very lucky coincidence that this giant tree was left standing.
Meet Its Tall Neighbor: The Centurion
Right next to the Triarius, just a bit to the southeast, lives an even taller tree! This tree is also an Eucalyptus regnans and is named Centurion. The Centurion is the tallest known eucalypt in the world. It stands an incredible 99.82-metre (327.5 ft) tall. Imagine two such massive trees growing so close together!
