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The Redwood

Quick Notes about the Redwoods Take me here now

Redwoods are seen in some parks in the UK
Redwoods are seen in some parks in the UK
The trees in the USA are much, much larger...
The trees in the USA are much, much larger...
Redwoods are seen in some parks in the UK
Redwoods are seen in some parks in the UK

The Facts

Tree type: Conifer with needle-like leaves and seed cones. Mostly evergreen.

Appearance: Mature trees normally have an orange or red bark which often looks as if it is peeling off in vertical strips. 

Location: Redwoods generally are very widely spread around the world, appearing in all latitudes from northern Norway to southern Chile. They do not survive well in the dry areas of desert or in the very wet environments of tropical lowland rainforest. This particular species, the Sequoia, lives only in the coastal forests of the western United States.

Ecology: The giant redwood is very fire-resistant and in fact needs forest fires in order to reproduce. The species once thrived in coasal areas of northern California, but large areas were cleared by logging in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Modern challenges include human attempts to prevent the forest fires which the redwoods depend on to create new trees. 

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The Legends

The giant redwood trees of north America are some of the most massive lrees on Earth, growing up to 380ft tall (116 metres) or the same height as a 37-storey building. In a mature redwood forest, the average age of the trees will be 500-1,000 years, but some grow to be 2,000 years old. 

The seeds are contained in small, hard seed cones which drop to the forest floor near the parent tree. Because mature redwood forests are very dark and gloomy at ground level (because of all the tall trees), young redwoods find it hard to get the sunlight they need to grow. But they do have an advantage, because redwoods are largely fireproof. When forest fires occur, non-redwood trees are burned away leaving the young redwoods with more space and light to thrive. The fires also help crack open the hard seed cones.

The latin name of the giant redwood is Sequoia, and was given by an Austrian botanist in 1847. He left no explanation for choosing the name, however. Some scientists believe the tree type was named after the Cherokee Indian inventor Sequoyah who created a unique way for his people to read and write in their native language using 85 special symbols

 

Make sure your volume is on: "The biggest trees in the world"

Show transcript

So we are pretty much central in the top of the park, under our six or seven redwoods that we have here. We have the giant redwood, which is sempervirens gigantium and the coastal redwood, which is the sequoia sempervirens. Wonderful trees! My favourite tree, the coastal redwood. In my opinion the best tree in the world.

It is native to the west coast of America – Oregon and a strip down there. It is bound by that strip and it feeds off the coastal fogs. Brilliant tree!

Its identifying features are its spongy bark – you can use it like a boxing bag. [That also protects it from fire – let’s whack that one in]. Very common fires within the forests of north America, and it protects the tree.

Brilliant timber uses…used throughout America for all sorts: cladding to building houses, railroads, just about everything. And there is no known fungi or pest that it affects, so it is pretty much indestructible...

It is also the only redwood that will regenerate. So if you chop it down, it just grows back again. Whereas the others won’t. [One of the only conifers that will do so]

We have the dawn redwood, which is from China. It was lost and thought to be extinct until 1945 after the war they rediscovered a valley in China. And now it is planted everywhere – it is a very popular redwood – you’ll see it in gardens and parks. Very attractive…the trunk sort of twists as it grows so you get a very attractive trunk.
It is deciduous, so it drops its leaves in winter.

That’s right, we probably should say that the coastal redwood and the giant redwood are conifer trees, so they keep their leaves during the winter, while the dawn redwood will shed its leaves like any broadleaf.

And the giant sequoia is the largest tree in the world. The biggest one is the General Sherman? [Hyperion] Oh, there’s a bigger one! General Sherman WAS the biggest. They keep discovering them in the valleys. A lot of them are so tall that they get hit by lightning so the highest ones change, tend to come down.

Identifiable features are spongy bark again, just like the coastal redwood, except the leaves are different. More like little spider legs, I seem to think. And very alien looking. Whereas the coastal redwood has a more flat display of needles.

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