Giant 68-foot cork tree in France verified as world’s tallest
A colossal cork oak tree, once noted as a landmark in a travel guide over a century ago, is now verified to be a world record holder.
The tree, located in Reynès, France, is officially the world’s tallest cork oak tree.
Standing at 21 metres (68 ft 10 in) tall, it’s around the same height as a seven-storey building.
It takes the title from Portugal’s Sobreiro Monumental aka “The Whistler Tree” – voted European Tree of the Year in 2018 – which is 16.2 m (53 ft) tall.
Cork oak trees are the primary source of cork, a material used to make various things including wine stoppers, cricket ball cores, bulletin boards, and flooring.
The record-breaking tree is currently under the stewardship of Serge Arnaudiès, who purchased it in the late 1980s.
Serge, descendant of a long line of Catalan farmers, told French magazine Notre Temps: “This tree was on unused land near our farm. Some old-timers remember it as an extraordinary specimen.”
He initially learned of the tree from an 1891 travel diary titled Souvenirs du Midi par un homme du Nord, which he found at a flea market in Perpignan.
The book contained an account of his area, in which the author Victor Dujardin detailed the location of a “magnificent cork oak, of a perfect cylindrical shape, whose circumference measures three metres and the height of the trunk approximately five metres”.
The extract continues: “The product of this tree, which is stripped of its bark every 10 years, represents from 4 to 500 kilograms of a beautiful cork, the value of which is more than 300 francs.”
Intrigued, Serge located the tree, and upon finding the land unused, he decided to buy it.
He said: “It was necessary to clear the brush to restore all its majesty to the oak, but it is in good health and is home to jays, magpies, blackbirds, squirrels, and wild boars rub against it.”
Serge stopped harvesting the tree’s bark in the ‘90s, hoping to preserve it for as long as possible.
He created an access path, and the land began being used for treasure hunts and picnics by his family as well as the wider community.
Locals have claimed it as the world’s biggest cork tree for many years, but it wasn’t properly measured until recently.
Now that it’s officially certified as the tallest in existence, they hope it will transcend its status as a local landmark and be declared a national symbol, just like the previous record holder in Portugal was.
The overall tallest living tree in the world is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) located in Redwood National Park, California, USA. Nicknamed “Hyperion”, it has a height of 116.07 metres (380.8 ft).
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