Scientists went looking for giant trees in Taiwan, and uncovered a lost world!
👀 🚶♂️ 🧭 📓 Using years of difficult expeditions, LiDAR mapping, and citizen‑science detective work, researchers documented an 84.1‑meter Taiwania fir, now recognized as the tallest known tree in East Asia, along with “temples of giants” where dozens of enormous trees cluster together in remote mountain forests.
The ancient stands they found rank among the most carbon‑rich ecosystems on the planet, functioning as towering, long‑lived reservoirs of biomass and biodiversity.
Their survival depends on steep terrain and inaccessibility, but they’re increasingly threatened by warming temperatures, extreme storms, and illegal logging.
The combination of LiDAR, citizen science, and deep field work offers a model for how we might find and safeguard other “lost worlds” of giant trees and rethink how we value intact mountain forests.
For those of us in climate, conservation, and forest‑based sourcing, this news is a reminder that some of Earth’s most powerful natural carbon vaults are still under‑mapped and under‑protected.
Reference:
Rebecca Chia-Chun Hsu, Chi-Kuei Wang, Chung-Cheng Lee. The journey of finding the tallest tree in Formosa Taiwan. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, 2026; 9