Taiwan, once widely known as Formosa, conceals a remarkable natural world within its steep and rugged interior. It is one of the few places on Earth capable of supporting truly giant trees, including specimens that rise more than 80 meters above the forest floor.
Since 2014, our group, the 'Taiwan tree seekers,' has worked to find, measure, and document these extraordinary trees. The team brings together professional tree climbers, ecologists, geologists, and remote sensing specialists.
That long search reached a major milestone in 2023, when we identified an 84.1-meter-tall (276-foot-tall) Taiwania fir (Taiwania cryptomerioides). It is now recognized as the tallest tree in Taiwan and all of East Asia. The Indigenous Rukai people have a poetic name for these immense firs: 'The tree that hits the moon'.
Taiwan's Mountainous Landscape
Taiwan's geography helps explain why trees of this size can grow there. The island covers roughly 36,000 square kilometers, making it similar in area to Switzerland. Much of the landscape is mountainous, with 258 peaks rising above 3,000 meters. The highest, Mt. Jade, reaches 3,952 meters.
