After three years of planning, five expeditions and a two-week trek through dense jungle, scientists have reached the tallest tree ever found in the Amazon rainforest, a towering specimen the size of a 25-storey building.
The giant tree, whose top juts out high above the canopy in the Iratapuru River Nature Reserve in northern Brazil, is an angelim vermelho (scientific name: Dinizia excelsa) measuring 88.5 meters (290 feet) tall and 9.9 meters (32 feet) around — the biggest ever identified in the Amazon, scientists say.
Researchers first spotted the enormous tree in satellite images in 2019 as part of a 3D mapping project.
A team of academics, environmentalists and local guides mounted an expedition to try to reach it later that year. But after a 10-day trek through difficult terrain, exhausted, low on supplies and with a team member falling ill, they had to turn back.
But the enormous angelim vermelho remained elusive until the September 12-25 expedition, when researchers traveled 250 kilometers (155 miles) by boat up rivers with treacherous rapids, plus another 20 kilometers on foot across mountainous jungle terrain to reach it.
“It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Just divine,” Silva, 33, told AFP. “You’re in the middle of this forest where humankind has never set foot before, with absolutely exuberant nature.”
Around half of the weight of the region’s giant trees is carbon absorbed from the atmosphere fundamental in helping curb climate change, says Silva. But despite its remoteness, the region’s giants are under threat.
“We were so thrilled to make this find,” says Pereira. “It’s super important at a time when the Amazon is facing such frightening levels of deforestation.”
