73. Giant Sequoia

Also called the Sierra Redwood or simply Sequoia

Location: Across Stevens Way from Anderson Hall north of the Medicinal gardens south of the woods of Heron Haven.

Historical Background: During the late Mesozoic period, ancestors of this tree were widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Range after the ice ages was reduced to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Extensive logging occurred by Europeans following colonization in the mid 1800s and a third of the large trees were removed. The first tree, found by a hunter named Augustus T. Dowd was cut and estimated to be around 1,200 years old. In the late 1800s, preservation efforts created Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. For Native Tribes like the Tule River Tribe, the tree provides food and medicine. Fallen trees would be used for construction. Groves would be used as recreation sites to teach youth their tribal history. 

In addition to cutting many of the trees (a travesty as the wood of these giants is extremely prone to splintering and therefore has few practical uses), white settlers abandoned the native practices of land management with fire and instead turned to suppression, leading to decreased reproduction just as the groves were being decimated. Today controlled burns are being implemented in some groves to correct this error, but these majestic specimens still face threats in their native range from climate change and from the hordes of tourists brought to them by their grandeur. If visiting California to see these trees avoid climbing on or around their root bases and trunks, the shallow root system is immensely susceptible to the erosion caused by repeated visitation and tree tourism has been a major cause of shortened lifespan in the remaining groves.

Non-Native

Native Range: West slope of the Sierra Nevada, California

Identifying Features: Another member of the famed redwood family, the rich warm bark of this tree is a good identifying feature, running from a reddish brown to orange color. On a mature tree, another identifying feature is the massive size. Giant Sequoias are the largest single trunked tree in the world, with a mass far greater than that of a Blue Whale, the largest animal species. The trunk can reach as much as 29’ (8.8m) in diameter, and the trees can achieve a respectable height of 150-250’ (46-76m). Giant Sequoias have very distinctive shapes both when young and mature. In youth they are beautifully conical in shape with branches sweeping right down to the ground. As they reach old age they begin to spread at the crown, self pruning lower branches and achieving a bulbous top, usually pyramidal but ultimately losing the main leader to wind or lightning in many cases. Evergreen leaves are scalelike, and crowd together in an overlapping form that is rather sharp if one grabs onto the spraylike sweeps of them in the wrong way. Bark is immensely thick and built to resist the numerous fires the trees are likely to endure over their 3200 year lifespan. Sequoias produce serotenous cones, meaning they need fire in many cases to reproduce. 

Identifying Features In Depth:

1. Form: Broad and conical when young, tapering to a point, maturing into a massive tree with a high irregular open crown, not uncommonly missing the top leader. Branches on older trees do not occur for dozens of feet and are often massive and gnarled, frequently the size of less magnificent species at the point where they leave the trunk, which grow straight with a heavily buttressed base to a height of 150-250’ (46-76m). Boughs often droop, even to the ground on younger specimens like that growing here. This individual is less than 1/320th of its potential age and the potential for great size may already be seen.

2. Leaves: Evergreen and scalelike, crowded and overlapping one another on leaders, a blue green with 2 stomotal lines. Needles turn to twigs with age, and are ovate or lance shaped with sharp points.

3. Bark: Bark is thick and a deep to orange-red color, fibrous and deeply furrowed into scales near base.

4. Reproductive Bodies: Cones are elliptical with reddish-brown flat and blunt scales 1.75-2.75” (4.5-7cm) in length. They mature over two seasons and generally remain on the tree hanging down on the end of twigs with 3-9 tiny two winged seeds per cone scale. Fire greatly improves chances of germination.