Scientists reach the tallest tree ever found in the Amazon
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After three years of planning, five expeditions and a two-week trek through dense jungle, scientists have arrived at the tallest tree ever found in the Amazon rainforest, a towering specimen the size of a 25-story building. Writes about it Phys.
The giant tree, whose top rises above the canopy of the Iratapura River Nature Reserve in northern Brazil, is a species of Dinizia excelsa. It is 88.5 meters high and 9.9 meters wide. Scientists claim that this is the largest tree ever discovered in the Amazon.
Researchers first spotted the huge tree in satellite imagery in 2019 as part of a 3D mapping project.
In the same year, a group of scientists, ecologists and local guides organized an expedition to get to it. But after 10 days of marching through difficult terrain, exhausted, short of supplies, and with a sick team member, they had to turn back.
Three more expeditions to the remote region of the Yari Valley Reserve, which lies on the border between the states of Amapa and Para, reached several other giant trees, including the tallest Brazil nut tree ever recorded in the Amazon – 66 meters.
But the huge Dinizia excelsa (there is another name for angelim vermelho) remained out of reach until the September 12-25 expedition, when the explorers traveled 250 kilometers by boat on rivers with treacherous rapids, plus another 20 kilometers on foot through mountainous jungle terrain to reach it.
One person out of 19 members of the expedition was bitten by a poisonous spider.
Nevertheless, scientists got to the tree.
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