Deep in the Brazilian Amazon stands a tree so tall that scientists first found it not from the ground, but from the air.
The giant Angelim vermelho (Dinizia excelsa) reaches approximately 88.5 meters — about 290 feet — into the forest canopy, making it the tallest known tree in the Amazon rainforest.
Scientists first identified the extraordinary tree in 2019 while analyzing airborne LiDAR data. LiDAR uses laser pulses to create detailed three-dimensional maps of the landscape below, allowing researchers to detect unusually tall trees hidden in dense rainforest. The surveys revealed not only the record-setting tree, but several others in the same remote region reaching more than 80 meters.
Finding a giant tree from the air, however, was much easier than reaching it.
The tree grows in an isolated part of northern Brazil, between the states of Pará and Amapá, hundreds of kilometers from major population centers. The region is difficult to access, with researchers having to travel through rivers, dense forest and challenging terrain.
An earlier expedition reached other exceptionally tall trees in the area, but researchers were unable to locate the exact 88.5-meter tree detected by LiDAR.
That finally changed in 2022.
Professor Eric Gorgens and his team returned to the Amazon and successfully located the exact tree identified three years earlier, confirming its remarkable height on the ground.
Scientists believe some of the giant trees in this region could be more than 400 years old. Their importance extends well beyond their impressive height. Large trees store enormous amounts of carbon, and researchers estimated that a single tree of this size could potentially hold as much carbon as an entire hectare of rainforest elsewhere in the Amazon.
The discovery also changed scientists’ understanding of Amazonian forests. South American tropical forests were traditionally not thought to contain trees as tall as those found in parts of Africa or Southeast Asia. The discovery of an entire group of Amazonian trees exceeding 80 meters showed that these extraordinary giants do exist — hidden in some of the rainforest’s most remote areas.
And perhaps that is the most remarkable part of the story: in an age of satellites, aircraft and advanced mapping technology, the Amazon is still large enough to hide a 290-foot tree for centuries.
Sources: University of Cambridge; Cambridge University Botanic Garden; University of Cambridge Centre for Earth Observation
By NJ RADAR Team