The highest tree of Italy has been identified and measured in the nature reserve of Vallombrosa, in the municipality of Reggello, in the province of Florence. The discovery was made by the SuperAlberi team, an association that deals with the care and study of plants and trees on the Italian territory.
The plant from the Guinness Book of Records is an Oregon spruce top 62,45 meters with a circumference of 3.31 log. The tree growers group has climbed and measured 25 trees in 20 days before he could identify it.
It is the most qualified procedure and scientifically recognized globally for height measurement of large trees. The "direct tape drop" method - is the direct measurement that takes place by climbing the tree. The alternatives, such as the use of the clinometer (an instrument that measures the inclination of the bodies,) do not provide a direct measurement in the field and for this reason have a higher margin of error. SuperAlberi is the only company in Italy to use the "direct tape drop" method. This procedure, according to members of the association, "is able to combine the sustainable pruning systems with interventions in tree climbing, putting man at the complete service of nature." The search tree highest in Italy involved a team of eight people and lasted 20 days.
The protagonists of this expedition told their steps in e-book "The tallest tree in Italy" and a documentary film. The trip was preceded by a lengthy bibliographical research through the archives of the national forests. The goal was to narrow down the search as possible. The set has been reduced to 50 plants, further reduced to 25, the number of trees actually climbed by the team from Tuscany, Trentino Alto Adige, Lombardy, Liguria, Emilia Romagna and Lazio.
At the end of a long journey ended in Tuscany, Super Trees crowned an Oregon fir, belonging to a family of conifers originating in Canada but now widely spread to Europe and Italy. With a height of 62.45 meters this tree he beat by almost three meters runner: a fir tree which is also measured in the reserve of Vallombrosa, whose forest was created and edited by the monks of the ancient Benedictine abbey adjacent until in 1973, it has been declared Natural Biogenetic Reserve. Finally, the third step of the podium, with 52.15 meters, there is the '' Avez of Prinzep "Lavarone (Trento): a white fir about 240 years.
