Top trees from the globe’s bottom half

Tāne Mahuta, the largest kauri tree in the world, in Waipoua forest, New Zealand Photograph: Uwe Moser/Getty Images/iStockphoto

This was a very northern-hemisphere-centric list (Eight of the world’s most amazing trees – from the Major Oak to the Lone Cypress, 6 October). New Zealand’s Tāne Mahuta, the largest kauri tree and around 2,000 years old, deserves a mention on any list of the greatest trees. Australians will probably think their 200m-year-old Wollemi pine, a tree so precious that its location is a closely guarded secret, also deserves a mention.
Dr Ian Watson
Auckland, New Zealand

• I too am a child of the 1950s (Letters, 8 October). My school regulation green knickers actually featured a pocket. Imagine the frantic, embarrassed fumbling if it were ever put to use.
Marianne Chipperfield
London