Big Tree (or The Big Tree in

Chirinda Forest The Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve is situated on the slopes of Mount Selinda, south of Chipinge, in the Chipinge Highlands of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, and is administered by the Forestry Commission. The reserve is situated at between in alt ...

) is the tallest indigenous

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, and a declared National Monument. The tree is around 65 metres tall and 4.5 metres wide. Its age is approximately 1,000 years. The tree is located in the centre of

(formerly known as Selinda) in southeast Zimbabwe at the southernmost part of the country's

Eastern Highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

. Big Tree is a ''

Khaya anthotheca ''Khaya anthotheca'', with the common name East African mahogany, is a large tree species in the Meliaceae family, native to tropical Africa. The name ''anthotheca'' was taken from the Greek word ''anthos'', meaning flower, while ''theca'' refe ...

'' or Nyasa redwood tree (previously referred to as ''Khaya nyasica''). In December 1986, it reached 65 metres tall and 5.25 metres wide. The

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure, and the stem of woody plants * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Comput ...

is heavily buttressed at the base, which complicates measurement.

Conservation

The Big Tree is protected within the

Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve The Chirinda Forest Botanical Reserve is situated on the slopes of Mount Selinda, south of Chipinge, in the Chipinge Highlands of Manicaland, Zimbabwe, and is administered by the Forestry Commission. The reserve is situated at between in al ...

, administered by Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Estate. It sustained damage from people carving their initials into it. The tree is suffering from some dieback, indicated by its declining height and the loss of its topmost branches, but it appears in overall good health. Whether the decline is due to human-related damage such as climate change or a natural process is unknown.

Other tall ''Khaya'' trees

''Khaya anthotheca'' is a beautiful species of great importance. Specimens planted in urban areas, particularly

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

and

Mutare Mutare, formerly known as Umtali until 1982, is the capital and largest city in the province of Manicaland. It is the third most populated in Zimbabwe. Having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 ...

have achieved massive size and height and often threaten buildings. They are not protected on private land in Zimbabwe. Large specimens are notable in older suburbs such as Avondale and Greendale. In Mutare, a site near the Botanical Gardens features a row of 26 giant trees in various states of health. In many places, the trees are home to hundreds of

epiphytic An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

and are a favourite vantage perch for large birds, including the

augur buzzard The augur buzzard (''Buteo augur'') is a fairly large African bird of prey. This species is distinct in typical adult plumage for its blackish back, whitish underside and orange-red tail, while juvenile augur buzzards are generally rather brown i ...

bat hawk The bat hawk (''Macheiramphus alcinus'') is a raptor found in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia to New Guinea. It is named for its diet, which consists mainly of bats. It requires open space in which to hunt, but will live anywhere from dense ra ...

pied crow The pied crow (''Corvus albus'') is a widely distributed African bird species in the crow genus of the family Corvidae. Structurally, the pied crow is better thought of as a small crow-sized raven, especially as it can hybridise with the Somali ...

s, and

silvery-cheeked hornbill The silvery-cheeked hornbill (''Bycanistes brevis'') is a large species of hornbill found in Africa. Silvery-cheeked hornbills are residents of the tall evergreen forests of East Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. In Zimbabwe it is threatened ...

References

{{coordinates, 20, 26, 29, S, 32, 42, 15, E, region:ZW_type:landmark, display=title, name=Big Tree Individual trees in Zimbabwe Trees of Africa

Conservation

Other tall ''Khaya'' trees

See also

References