Custom Search

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tallest?

Here's a tree I've been photographing from time to time over the last couple of years because every time I am near it I am amazed at how enormous it is. So I have a question for my fellow Victorians: Is this the tallest tree in the city? Any information about this tree would be appreciated. Today's photos were taken during the Moss Street Paint-in in July. The tree is at the corner of Moss Street and Richardson. The two little girls in the photo on the left were providing some excellent violin entertainment that day.
Confession: Some time after I posted the two photos featured here I realized that they are NOT photos of the same tree. The one on the left is the tree I was writing about, on the corner of Moss and Richardson. The tree in the photo above is further up the hill and may be the tree referred to in several comments as being on the corner of Moss and Rockland. In any case, both of them are very tall trees.

ps: I just found this:
If you feel like venturing farther in search of giant Giant sequoias in Victoria, check out what some claim is the primo sequoia in town. This monument to massive can be found at a residential address at the corner of Moss Street and Richardson in Fairfield, just east of downtown. From the Vancouver Island Big Trees blog.

7 comments:

Dean Lewis said...

Good question. Someone should catalogue them all in the city.

There are a few books out there on the old-growth giants on Vancouver Island. One year I made a pilgramage to see the iconic Cheewhat Cedar near the treasured Carmanah-Walbran Valley. It is 186 ft.high (20 stories), 20 ft. in diameter, and Estimated at 2,500+ years old !

JoJo said...

There has to be a stat on this somewhere!

Anonymous said...

I had always been under the impression that the tallest tree in the city was an evergreen (not sure what type) at the corner of Moss and Rockland. Not sure where I heard or read it, though.

gmaya said...

Hello...Thanks for the pix!
Did you notice you've just captured the sight of heaven!! look through those branches way to top...hmm its never ending!! Beautiful!

urs Blog follower
Guru

ngawangchodron said...

This is a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens. Not sure if it is the Greater Victoria area tallest tree since there are some really massive Douglas fir trees in the DND Lands near Royal Roads. I think it may be the largest non native tree, there are several large Redwoods (examples: at the Legislative Buildings, near Royal Athletic Park-John Teague's tree, and some along Richardson and one at Moss and Rockland)

ngawangchodron said...

You might want to check out this link:
http://vancouverislandbigtrees.blogspot.com/p/visit-big-trees.html

Benjamin Madison said...

Thanks all for your contributions.

Dean,Canada's tallest tree and one of the tallest trees in the world, a Sitka Spruce, is also in Carmanah and is about 96 meters (315 feet) tall.

ngawangchodron, thanks for the information and interesting link.

Readers might also want to check out nagawangchodron's photostream on Flickr for a great collection of photographs of Victoria.