World's tallest hardwood tree discovered in Tasmania

MELBOURNE: The world's tallest hardwood tree has been discovered in Tasmania, just 4 km from a popular tourist attraction, an Australian forestry body reported.

"The world's tallest eucalyptus tree, tallest hardwood tree and tallest flowering plant, Centurion, named after a Roman officer, stands between 100 and 101 metres," Forestry Tasmania Managing Director Bob Gordon was quoted as saying in a report on Friday.

The 400-year-old swamp gum (eucalyptus regnans) was discovered in a state forest near the Tahune Airwalk tourist attraction, 80 km south-west of Hobart, Gordon said.

The Tasmanian tree is the only known standing hardwood tree in the world to be over 100 metres tall and the tallest known tree in Australia.

The diameter of Centurion, which is also the second tallest tree in the world, is 405 cm and its height was measured using laser survey equipment.

A second giant swamp gum named Triarius, standing 86.5 metres tall with a 390 cm diameter, was also found alongside Centurion.

Forestry Tasmania officer David Mannes said Centurion may have been taller in the past.

"It appears to have broken off at the top, then re-sprouted a new healthy crown," Mannes said.

The two trees will be safeguarded under the state's Giant Tree Policy, which provides immediate protection for trees taller than 85 metres.

Forestry Tasmania says records from Victoria, mostly from the 19th century, describe a number of trees taller than 100 metres but many of those measurements are disputed.

None of those Victorian giants now exists, it says. Californian redwood trees grow taller than Centurion, but they are softwood trees and botanists do not classify them as flowering plants.