Widest Non-Clonal Tree in The World

This post has been updated on Feb. 25, 2023

In March 2015, while I was roaming through the Google Street View of Thailand, I came across this large, wide tree in Kanchanaburi.

Image Source: Google Street View

The Google Earth imagery of that time showed a canopy diameter of about 57.9 metres (190 ft.)

Image Source: Google Earth

The large, wide tree located on the Thai Army cavalry grounds in Kanchanaburi, Thailand is known as Albizia saman, or the Rain Tree or Monkey Pod tree. It has a canopy diameter of approximately 60.4 metres (198 feet), a trunk girth (diameter) of 9.15 metres (30 feet), and stands 20 metres (65.6 feet) tall. The tree's canopy covers an area of approximately 2,416 square metres (0.6 acres or 26,000 square feet). The tree is over 100 years old, and its trunk has a circumference of about 17.7 metres (57.5 feet), so large that at least 10 people are needed to embrace it fully. It is a popular tourist attraction.

It may be worthwhile to note there are few wide trees which are bigger in circumference than this tree, however all these are clonal trees and cannot be considered as the Widest Non-Clonal Tree in The World.

I am therefore of the firm opinion that this tree in Kanchanaburi, Thailand is World's Widest Non-Clonal Tree. I request my readers to negate/confirm this.  This premise has since been confirmed as this tree was included in 2018 in the Guinness World Records.

Image from Google Maps is by Yps Yps

Image from Wikimedia Commons is by Chainwit.

Image from Finding The Universe is copyright © Laurence and Jessica. Permission to use image is thankfully acknowledged. 

The tree's radial roots, protruding above the ground, are as thick as the tree trunk.

I am thankful to J'AoO for sharing several fantastic images of this giant tree in pantip.com.

View location in Google Earth / Google Street View

Source of info:

1. tourismthailand.org (Edit Note: The original Tourism Thailand web site is not available anymore, but it can be accessed via Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
2. thailandee.com
3. Guinness World Records