VIDEO: World’s tallest Scots pine grows in Estonia

Info from RMK
Video Kaupo Kikkas and Kristian Kruuser
Translation Liis

 
Scots pine       Harilik mänd     Pinus sylvestris
 
The Scots pine growing in the Veriora parish in Põlva county that is the tallest  in Estonia surprisingly also turned out to be the tallest known Scots pine in the world.
 
The Põlva county giant is 46,6 metres tall and surpasses the until now known tallest Scots pine in the world, growing in Poland, by 1,3 metres. The recent measurements made by the University of Life Sciences researchers also show that the splendid tree has an impressive age – at least 214 years.
 
According to RMK’s forester Kaarel Tiganik the tallest pine in the world was measured by chance at the end of last year: he had originally asked for the spruces standing close to the pine to be examiined. “When it was clear that among the spruces we had found a new record tree in Estonia (48,6 metres), the researchers from the University of Life Sciences measured the pine growing beside it too,” Kaarel Tiganik said, explaining how Estonia in one day got a new tallest pine as well as spruce. The age of the spruce was determined to be at least 202 years by the researchers.
 
That the pine growing in the Ootsipalu valley is actually the tallest in the world became clear later when nature man Henrik Relve, well informed about the tallest trees in Estonia, entered the record tree in the international database of tall trees: LINK
 
There are more than a hundred different pine species in the world; the species growing  in the Ootsipalu valley in Põlva is the Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, that has its natural habitat in Europe. In Estonia the Scots pine is the only native pine species and also the most common tree in our forests.
 
Foresters and researchers believe that one reason for so many record trees growing  in one place in Põlva is that the trees grow on a bowl-shaped ground, partly on the slope, partly in the depression. It provides natural protection from strong gales and winds and ensures that precipitation water and nutrients flow into the bottom of the depression, so supplying the tree with sufficient water and nutrients. Hendrik Relve has dubbed the trees in the area “the Ootsipalu valley giants“.
 
See photos of the world’s tallest  Scots pine: LINK
 
 
 
 


 

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