Menara (tree)

Menara is the name of a yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana) tree found in the Danum Valley Conservation Area, in Sabah on the island of Borneo. It was measured at 100.8 m (331 ft), which ranks it as the world's tallest known living tropical tree[1][2][3] and the tallest known tree on the Asian continent. The team, which is working with Southeast Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP), has named the tree “Menara”, which means "tower" in the Malay language due to its towering height.

Menara was discovered in August 2018. On January 6th, 2019 Unding Jami established a measurement for the tree by climbing it and measuring its height using a tape measure. Later that year, a research team scanned the tree with a terrestrial laser scanner and drone flights to produce a 3D model.[4] Menara is likely the tallest flowering plant in the world as it's taller than the previous record holder, a Mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) in Tasmania that may be 100.5 m tall.

If not counting its roots, Menara weighs nearly 81,500 kilograms. 95% of this mass is located in the trunk, while 5% comes from the 40 meter-wide crown. The stem is extremely straight, with its center of mass at 28 m above the ground, which is just 0.6 m off from the central vertical axis. This indicates that the tree is highly symmetrical and well-balanced, even though it is sitting on a slope.[1]

In 2020, Pos Malaysia Berhad release a stamp set featuring Menara. The set also includes a miniature sheet 18 centimetres in length, making it the largest stamp ever release by Pos Malaysia. [5]