There is a ceiling on how tall a tree can get

A tree does not pump water. It pulls it—a continuous thread of water held under tension, running unbroken from the roots to the highest leaf. Pull too hard and the thread snaps.

Researchers climbed the tallest redwoods and measured the pressure at the top to find out where the snapping starts. It works out to somewhere around 122 to 130 metres.

The tallest trees alive are already within a few metres of that. There is a maximum height for a tree, and we are looking at it.

What else has a limit that nobody set on purpose?

Sources

• The limits to tree height — Koch et al. 2004, Nature

Sources checked 2026-08-12.