Come and see! This may be the longest photo you have ever seen

From June 7 to June 23 this year, the Chinese Giant Tree Scientific Expedition Team went to Yigon Township, Bomi County, Nyingchi, Tibet and other places, and successfully completed a comprehensive scientific expedition to the giant cypress tree community in southern Tibet.

On August 13, the scientific expedition team released life-size photos and related data of two thousand-year-old giant trees , Southern Tibetan Cypress I and Southern Tibetan Cypress II .

The "life-size photo" of the giant tree was taken by a drone that rose and fell vertically in a circle, and then synthesized using thousands of photos in post-production. It can achieve a proportional comparison between the person and the giant tree, bringing a shocking visual effect.

Today, let’s take a look at the secrets contained in these two giant trees.

Tip: The picture is very long, please scroll up patiently

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Full body photo of the southern Tibetan cypress tree No. 1

Full body photo of the southern Tibetan cypress tree No. 2

How big is a giant tree?

A tree is an ecosystem

The giant tree communities discovered in this survey have rich height layers.

According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 260 giant trees over 80 meters and 25 giant trees over 90 meters. According to the living height, there is one 100-meter-class giant tree, namely the Tibetan cypress No. 1, with a living height of 101.2 meters , which is the second tallest tree species in the world and the tallest tree in Asia. The second tallest tree is the Tibetan cypress No. 2, with a living height of 99.5 meters.

Experts inferred from the ratio of the tree's diameter at breast height to its annual rings that the age of the southern Tibetan cypress No. 1 is about 1,450 years old , with a diameter at breast height of 296 cm, and the age of the southern Tibetan cypress No. 2 is about 1,400 years old , with a diameter at breast height of 288 cm.

The hundred-meter-high giant tree itself is a small ecosystem. The epiphytes of the Tibetan cypress No. 1 and No. 2 trees are increasingly rich and dense at 50 meters and above, all the way to the top of the tree.

Succulent plants of the genus Echeveria in the Crassulaceae family that grow on the tree No. 2 of the southern Tibetan cypress at an altitude of 80 meters

There are 46 species of epiphytes on tree No. 2, including more than 6 species of orchids, including suspected new species of Cymbidium and Bulbophyllum.

Bulbophyllum rotundifolium on the tree No. 2 of southern Tibetan cypress

The expedition also discovered the Crimson Minivet and Red-winged Thrush Babbler active in the tree canopy, as well as bulbuls, great tits, and beautiful warblers in the middle and lower layers of the canopy, and more than a dozen insects such as the Scarlet Beetle.

Beautiful Babbler in the broad-leaved forest

How do giant trees grow?

Can I keep growing taller?

Giant trees are one of the biological hallmarks of the rainforest.

" Botanists generally call trees over 70 meters tall giant trees ," said Zhong Xin, director of the Chenshan Center of the National Important Wild Plant Germplasm Resource Bank. " Giant trees over 80 meters in the world all live in areas with heavy rainfall, sufficient water vapor and relatively mild climates. "

"Bomi Yigong Township is located in the channel where water vapor from the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon flows northward. The average annual precipitation is 1,500 to 2,000 mm, and it has the conditions for a cloud forest."

At heights exceeding 60 meters, it becomes increasingly difficult for the treetops to obtain water absorbed from the roots, and it is more important for the branches and leaves to obtain water directly from fog and rain. At the same time, the species of giant trees is also important. For example, the maximum height of the North American redwood and the southern Tibetan cypress is more than 80 meters.

So, can the tree keep growing taller?

The maximum height of a tree depends on two conditions: the mechanical strength of the trunk and the height to which water can be delivered by the tree's transpiration . Therefore, even giant trees have a "limit"!

Look at the camera! This is how to take a life-size photo of a giant tree

The "life-size photos" of giant trees eliminate the perspective interference of things being larger when they are near and smaller when they are far away, and bring the immovable giant trees to the audience's eyes relatively clearly and realistically, so as to achieve a proportional contrast and experience between the characters and the giant trees.

Before 2019, this kind of shooting often took half a month or even a month. With the continuous improvement of drone technology, this problem has been solved by using drones to take pictures in a circle vertically , and then synthesizing hundreds of photos in the later stage.

During this comprehensive scientific expedition, an average of 1,500 to 1,700 photos were taken of each giant tree, completing the "life-size" photos of the southern Tibetan cypress (No. Ⅰ and No. Ⅱ). The shooting accuracy of No. Ⅱ exceeded 5.5 billion pixels .

The Chinese Giant Tree Expedition Team took a group photo under the giant tree

It takes hundreds or even thousands of years for a giant tree to form stably. It is also home to epiphytes, insects and small mammals, and is of great significance to the conservation of biodiversity around the world !

Please protect China's giant trees together!

Planning and production

Source: CCTV News

Reporter: Chen Qin, Xu Xiaolong, Chen Fujun, Zhao Long, Hao Zi

Full-length photography丨Liu Gang

Collaborative units: Tibet Autonomous Region Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Nyingchi City Bomi County Forestry and Grassland Bureau, "Wild China" Studio, 720 Cloud Platform

Editor: Cui Yinghao