{"id":3173,"date":"2011-10-21T10:51:08","date_gmt":"2011-10-20T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3173"},"modified":"2011-10-21T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2011-10-20T23:51:08","slug":"do-trees-stop-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/nature\/do-trees-stop-growing\/","title":{"rendered":"Do trees stop growing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3174\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 604px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/TREES.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3174\" title=\"TREES\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/TREES.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/TREES.jpg 604w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/TREES-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giant sequoia. Image: Shutterstock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>The short answer is no.<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The girth of a tree changes constantly; it expands, adding growth ring upon growth ring&#8211;and it will not stop unless felled by a natural event or a chainsaw.<\/p>\n<p>Each tree species has a height limit, and it is based on its vascular system and how far it can carry water up from the roots. Some of the world&#8217;s tallest trees can be found in:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\"><strong>Redwood National Park, US: <\/strong>Coast Redwood (<em>Sequoia sempervirens<\/em>), approx. 115 metres.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\"><strong>Hobart,\u00a0Australia: <\/strong>Mountain Ash (<em>Eucalyptus regnans<\/em>), approx. 99 metres. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\"><strong>Brummit Creek,\u00a0Coos County, US: <\/strong>Douglas-fir (<em>Pseudotsuga menziesii<\/em>), approx. 99 metres.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\"><strong>Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, US: <\/strong>Spruce (<em>Picea sitchensis<\/em>), approx.96 metres.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\"><strong>Redwood Mountain Grove, US: <\/strong>Sequoia (<em>Sequoiadendron giganteum<\/em>): approx. 94 metres.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Nimbus Sans L', sans-serif; line-height: 17px;\">Got a burning science question? Send it to letters@scienceillustrated.com.au and one of our experts will answer it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The short answer is no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,64,45,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-us","category-ecology","category-environment","category-nature"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3176,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions\/3176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}