New tallest conifer of Europe

[KoutaR]

France has now gained the title "the tallest reliably measured conifer of Europe". It is a 66.44-m (218.0-ft) Douglas-fir, measured by tape drop. Though, the tallest of the UK was only 4 cm shorter in November and now it is likely taller than the French tree. It was measured by Nikon, so the accuracy is not as high. The tallest of Germany was 65.8 m (216 ft) in March, measured by Karlheinz with TruPulse 200X.

[Joe]

kouta, any idea the age of that tree?
Joe

[KoutaR]

Joe, the tree was planted in 1892, so it now 122 years old.

[KoutaR]

Here is a video of the climbing/measuring the tree:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=724715720904116

[dbhguru]

Kouta,

Thanks for the news and the most entertaining video. Douglas fir seems suited to lots of Europe. I wonder how growth rates for redwoods in Europe would compare to Doug fir. Any thoughts?

Bob

[KoutaR]

Bob,

Redwoods grows very rapidly only in the most oceanic climates of temperate Europe: in the UK and Portugal. As the native range of Douglas fir is much larger there are good seed origins for many European countries: for example, coastal origins for the western UK and the Cascades for Germany and adjacent countries. But I think Douglas-fir grows better than redwood even in the UK. There were once an interesting discussion about the topic on Monumentaltrees, an English forester telling interesting facts about the growth of western conifers, but I cannot find it for now. That is a bad thing in the MT forum - old discussions are almost impossible to find.

I don't know the ages of the tallest and second tallest redwood but the third tallest was 123 years old when measured to 49 m. Some numbers for Douglas-fir:

HEIGHT - AGE - COUNTRY
======================
66.44 m - 122 y - France
66.4 m - 131 y - UK
65.8 m - 101 y - Germany
65.2 m - 93 y - UK
64.0 m - 93 y - UK

[dbhguru]

Kouta,

There is evidence that, historically, Douglas fir could exceed the heights of the redwoods. I once read that the Doug fir has a wider gene pool and that of redwoods is more restricted. I don't know if that thinking is still in vogue, but it seems to make sense.

I don't remember if you've posted the answer before, but what is the tallest angiosperm in Europe? In decades to come, can we expect a shootout between eucalyptus and Douglas fir? What would be #3?

Bob

[KoutaR]

The tallest tree is Eucalyptus diversicolor in Portugal. It was 72 m in 2010. The second tallest in 2010 was Eucalyptus globulus in Spain, 68 m. Douglas-fir is third. We are not aware of more recent measurements of Portugal's and Spain's eucalypts.