General Sherman (tree)

General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth.

While the General Sherman is the largest currently living tree, it is not the largest historically-recorded tree. The Crannell Creek Giant, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) near Trinidad, California, is estimated to have been 15 to 25% larger than the General Sherman tree by volume. That tree was cut down in the mid-1940s. Another larger coast redwood, near 90,000 cubic feet, the Lindsey Creek tree, was reported in a 1905 Humboldt Times Standard article.

The General Sherman was named after the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, in 1879 by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman. In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. One result of this process was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.

In January 2006 the largest branch on the tree (seen most commonly, in older photos, as an "L" or golf-club shape, protruding from about a quarter of the way down the trunk) broke off. There were no witnesses to the incident, and the branch — larger than most tree trunks; diameter over 2 m (6.6 ft) and length over 30 m (98 ft) — smashed part of the perimeter fence and cratered the pavement of the surrounding walkway. The breakage is not believed to be indicative of any abnormalities in the tree's health, and may even be a natural defense mechanism against adverse weather conditions.

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