Which tree species has the largest trunk circumference, located in Oaxaca, Mexico?

The tree with the world’s largest known trunk circumference is the Árbol del Tule, a Montezuma cypress known scientifically as Taxodium mucronatum. It stands in Santa María del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico.

The tree grows in the grounds of a church about nine kilometers east of Oaxaca City. In 2005, its trunk circumference was measured at about 42 meters. Because the trunk is heavily buttressed and irregularly shaped, its apparent diameter is larger than the diameter of a smoothed cross-section.

Árbol del Tule is also called an ahuehuete, a Nahuatl word often translated as “old man of the water.” DNA studies have supported the conclusion that the massive specimen is one genetic individual, although its unusual form once led people to believe it was several trees growing together.

Its exact age is uncertain. Estimates range from roughly 1,200 to 3,000 years, while growth-based scientific estimates place it near 1,433–1,600 years. It is sometimes called the “Tree of Life” because visitors see animal-like shapes in its gnarled trunk.