Tasmania's Giant Ash Trees May be the World's Tallest

While the majority of people (at least us native Californians) have heard of the towering redwoods found in Northern California, no one talks about the giant ash trees of Tasmania. Found in, you guessed it, Tasmania, ash trees are the tallest flowering trees in the world. While they aren't the world's tallest (beaten by those pesky redwoods), research suggests that they could have been if it wasn't for climate change and humans. While ash trees were thought to live for only 350-450 years, recent studies show that they could live past 500 years and although this doesn't compare to 3,000 year old redwoods, ash trees grow an astonishing 5 times faster than their California Counterparts. Like many other species in Tasmania (disregarding natural causes such as fires, fungus, and climate change), Ash Trees faced dire consequences with European colonization. Logging severely reduced ash tree populations, and today, only a tiny percentage of these trees that were alive in pre-European Tasmania are still standing. One can argue that these trees are as tall as redwoods; they'll just have to wait 100 years to see their true potential.

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