Product Description
Species Name:
Sequoia — from the Cherokee Indian chief Sequoyah
sempervirens — from the Latin meaning “always green”
Family Name:
Taxodiacae, often called the deciduous cypress family
Relatives:
The coast redwood has only two close relatives. The shorter but more massive giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grows only in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The deciduous dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), a veritable midget at 115 feet in height, is found native only in a remote area of central China.
Location:
Although Sequoia sempervirens have been cultivated elsewhere, this tree naturally achieves its majestic heights and lush groves only in one place in the world — a 450-mile strip along the Pacific Coast of North America, beginning in southern Oregon and ending just south of Monterey, California. The trees prosper in this mild climate zone, where winter rains and summer fog provide an even temperature and a high level of year-round moisture. The trees inhabit sheltered, well-watered places of rich soil as far inland from the Pacific Ocean as the fog drift — seldom more than 20 miles — and up the coastal mountainsides to about 2,000 feet elevation.
Age:
The oldest verified redwood tree is at least 2,200 years of age, but foresters believe that some may be much older.
Size:
The coast redwoods are the tallest living species on Earth. Often they can reach heights of 300-350 feet and diameters of 16-18 feet. More than a dozen trees exceeding 360 feet in height are now growing along the California coast.
Redwoods are also renowned for their extremely high volume of standing biomass, in some stands exceeding 3,500 metric tons/hectacre.
