Good Luck Finding the World's Tallest Tree

Nine years ago, the world’s tallest known tree was 369 feet high—roughly twice the size of the Statue of Liberty. But after holding that title for four years, a 379-foot tree was discovered in California’s Redwood National Park. That tree, nicknamed “Hyperion,” and the old title-holder, “Stratosphere Giant,” are both somewhere in California—but the people who discovered them won’t say where, exactly. Why? Because trees, unlike people, “cannot run away from paparazzi,” an ecologist tells NPR.

That ecologist led a team to the top of Hyperion and dropped a tape to the ground to determine the tree’s height is 379 feet, 4 inches. (Watch another scientist make the climb in the video at left.) California boasts another record-making tree, Del Norte Titan, in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. That behemoth boasts enough wood to build 120 average-sized houses. Click for more, including a very impressive picture of the world’s (formerly) tallest tree. (More redwoods stories.)