Known as ‘the Tree of Tule’ (El Árbol del Tule in Spanish) it’s thought to be the biggest girth on earth.
Growing in a churchyard in Mexico, the Taxodium mucronatum is thought to have the stoutest trunk in the world.– including the heavy buttressing – measured at 42.0m in 2005. However some killjoys prefer to measure only the inner trunk, which comes in at a paltry 9.38m. Laser measurement in 2005 recorded its height at 35.4m, and one indisputable fact is, contrary to some claims, the El Árbol del Tule is a single organism, proven by DNA testing.
The age of the grand old Montezuma cypress is unknown, but local legend claims it was planted around 1400 years ago – a theory supported by scientific estimates.
Aye carumba! After that many years in one spot we’d expect to be getting a little thick around the middle too!