El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is a tree located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, approximately east of the city of Oaxaca on the road to Mitla. It is a Montezuma cypress (Taxodium mucronatum), or ahuehuete (meaning "old man of the water" in Nahuatl). It has the stoutest tree trunk in the world. In 2001, it was placed on a UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage Sites, but was removed from the list in 2013.
Dimensions and age
In 2005, its trunk had a circumference of , equating to a diameter of , an increase from a measurement of m in 1982. However, the trunk is heavily buttressed, giving a higher diameter reading than the true cross-sectional of the trunk represents; when this is taken into account, the diameter of the 'smoothed out' trunk is .
The height is difficult to measure due to the very broad crown; the 2005 measurement, made by laser, is , This does not rule out another hypothesis, which states that it comprises multiple trunks from a single individual.
The age is unknown, with estimates ranging between 1,200 and 3,000 years, and even one claim of 6,000 years; the best scientific estimate based on growth rates is 1,433–1,600 years. Local Zapotec knowledge holds that it was planted about 1,400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of the Aztec wind god Ehecatl - this age is in broad agreement with the scientific estimate; its location on a sacred site (later taken over by the Roman Catholic Church) would also support this.
See also
- List of individual trees
- List of oldest trees