The President tree is 3200 years old! It’s SO big that it has never been captured in one photo until now…

There’s a magnificent sequoia tree in Sierra Nevada’s Sequoia National Park. It’s 3,200 years old with 2 billion leaves, and stands over 247 feet tall. They gave this incredible tree a fitting name: the President.

The giant President is too large to capture in its entirety. But a tree-climbing scientist and his team figured out a way to achieve the impossible, measuring the tree inch by inch and taking a total of 126 photographs. Then with the help of Photoshop, they stitched all the photos to form this stunning image below.

See for yourself.

gt1National Geographic

[wp_ad_camp_1]

These are the team who painstakingly took the measurements and pictures of the President.

gt2Michael Nichols / National Geographicgt3Michael Nichols / National Geographicgt4Michael Nichols / National Geographicgt5Michael Nichols / National Geographicgt6National Geographicgt7National Geographicgt8National Geographicgt9National Geographicgt10National Geographicgt11National Geographic

Watch the video to see how they did it.

(Credit: National Geographic)

“We know that there are trees that have bigger trunks, but when you add up all of the wood beside the main trunk – all of the limbs, all of the branches, all of the bio-mass above the ground – this tree is likely the biggest,” said Steve Sillett from Humboldt State University.

Giant sequoias like the President can endure the cold, heavy snow, and can live at high elevations. The awe-inspiring photo of the President appeared in the December 2012 edition of the National Geographic.