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.