Widest Non-Clonal Tree in The World

A note about this post:

In March 2015, while I was roaming through the Google Street View of Thailand, I came across this large, wide tree in Kanchanaburi.

Image Source: Google Street View

The Google Earth imagery of that time showed a canopy diameter of about 57.9 metres (190 ft.)

I had made a post about this tree in the now defunct Google Earth Community, and I was ".... of the firm opinion that this tree in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, is the world's widest non-clonal tree."

In my post, I had asked my readers to confirm or deny my surmise, and I also contacted Thailand Tourism and the BBC to look into it. Unfortunately, I didn't get any response from anyone.

Recently, while researching my latest post about the "Tree With Largest Canopy Area in the World" I discovered that the tree in Kanchanaburi has since been included in the Guinness World Records as the "Widest crown on a living tree (single trunk)".

My original March 2015 post is no longer available due to the demise of the official Google Earth community; however, I am reposting that post from my archives after duly updating it.

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The large, wide tree located on the Thai Army cavalry grounds in Kanchanaburi, Thailand is known as Albizia saman, or the Rain Tree or Monkey Pod tree. It has a canopy diameter of approximately 60.4 metres (198 feet), a trunk girth (diameter) of 9.15 metres (30 feet), and stands 20 metres (65.6 feet) tall. The tree's canopy covers an area of approximately 2,416 square metres (0.6 acres or 26,000 square feet). The tree is over 100 years old, and its trunk has a circumference of about 17.7 metres (57.5 feet), so large that at least 10 people are needed to embrace it fully. It is a popular tourist attraction.

It may be worthwhile to note there are few wide trees which are bigger in circumference than this tree, however all these are clonal trees and cannot be considered as the Widest Non-Clonal Tree in The World.

Image from Google Maps is by Yps Yps

Image from Wikimedia Commons is by Chainwit.

Image from Finding The Universe is copyright © Laurence and Jessica. Permission to use image is thankfully acknowledged.

The tree's radial roots, protruding above the ground, are as thick as the tree trunk.

I am thankful to J'AoO for sharing several fantastic images of this giant tree in pantip.com.

View location in Google Street View

Source of info:

1. tourismthailand.org (Edit Note: The original Tourism Thailand web site is not available anymore, but it can be accessed via Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
2. thailandee.com
3. Guinness World Records

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