Scientists discover giant 3,000-year-old trees never before seen by humans
By Jordan Joseph
Botanists confirmed recently that a towering tree discovered in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains is an entirely new species, Tessmannia princeps.
The research team is led by Andrea Bianchi, a horticulturist and researcher at Muse Science Museum in Trento, whose group worked with Tanzanian experts to document the species and its remote habitat.
Bianchi and local plant specialists were mapping plants in the Boma la Mzinga and Uluti Village Land Forest Reserves in 2019 when they nearly walked into a gray‑barked giant they could not name.