Tree of the Week
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Pieter Severynen’s ‘Tree of the week’ is always a welcome change of pace here, and particularly so after a tumultuous week. This week Pieter continues his three-part look at California’s superlative trees. This week, the largest.
Giant Sequoia – Seqoiadendron giganteum
‘Ancestors of the redwood family grew worldwide some 175 million years ago. But after the Ice Ages the three remaining species: Giant Sequoia, Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens and Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, are now limited to small areas. The Giant Sequoias of California’s Western Sierra Nevada, also known as Big Trees, grow in some 75 groves scattered at elevations of 4,600 to 7,000 feet. Most trees are located in the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National parks and Giant Sequoia National Monument. Well-intentioned human interference has caused their density to decline. A century of fire suppression promoted heavy undergrowth of fir trees that prevented sequoia seedlings from getting established. In addition, the incidence of naturally occurring, rather frequent, low-intensity fires that are not harmful to the trees but actually clear the soil for the seedlings has dwindled. Meanwhile, very damaging, hard to fight, high-intensity fires started take place. So since 1970 controlled burns are used to mimic the original pattern.
‘Since giant sequoias grow very fast, 2 to 3 feet a year, and keep on growing and adding girth, sometimes for over 3,000 years, they produce a huge amount of wood. The General Sherman tree, the world’s champion largest tree in terms of volume, is 36.5 feet in diameter at its base, still 14 feet in diameter at 180 feet high, stands 275 feet tall, and contains an estimated 52,500 cubic feet of wood. In our gardens we can expect 60- to 100-foot tall, 30- to 50-foot wide, dense, cold hardy, pyramidal, evergreen trees. Branchlets are covered with small, overlapping, pointed scales. Fibrous brown bark, up to two feet thick, protects the tree against fire and insects. Cones, 2 to 3 inches long, hang on for many years. Wood is decay-resistant but brittle. Several garden varieties, including a weeping one, are available. From its first western naming in 1833, botanists kept disagreeing about the proper classification; it was not until 1939 and after three more names that J. Buchholz gave the tree its current designation.’
Thanks, Pieter.
Thoughts? Comments?
E-mail Pieter: plseve@earthlink.net
Photo Credit: The General Grant tree in Kings Canyon National Park, Tulare County, by the National Park Service.