Family: Cupressaceae, Cypress view all from this family
Description The world's tallest tree, with reddish-brown trunk much enlarged and buttressed at base and often with rounded swellings or burls and slightly tapering; crown short, narrow, irregular and open with horizontal or drooping branches.
Height: 200-325' (61-99 m).
Diameter: 10-15' (3-4.6 m), sometimes larger.
Leaves: evergreen; of 2 kinds. Mostly needlelike and unequal, 3/8-3/4" (10-19 mm) long; flat and slightly curved, stiff and sharp-pointed, extending down twig at base; dark green above, whitish-green beneath; spreading in 2 rows. Leaves on leaders scalelike, as short as 1/4" (6 mm); keeled, concave, spreading around twig.
Bark: reddish-brown, very tough and fibrous, very thick, deeply furrowed into broad, scaly ridges; inner bark cinnamon-brown.
Twigs: slender, dark green, forking in 1 plane, ending in scaly bud.
Cones: 1/2-1 1/8" (1.2-3 cm) long; elliptical, reddish-brown, with many flat, short-pointed cone-scales; hanging down at end of leafy twig; maturing in 1 season; 2-5 seeds under cone-scale, light brown, 2-winged.
Habitat Mostly alluvial soils on flats and benches or terraces; forms pure stands in luxuriant dense forests; also with Douglas Fir, Port Orford Cedar, and mixed conifers.
Range Extreme SW. Oregon south to central California in fog belt, a coastal strip 5-35 miles (8-56 km) wide; from sea level to 3000' (914 m).
Discussion The world's tallest tree is a Redwood 368' (112 m) high. The age of these trees at maturity is 400-500 years; the maximum age counted in annual rings is 2200. Circles of trees grow from sprouts around stumps and dead trunks. The genus name commemorates the Indian name Sequoyah (also spelled Sequoia) (1770?-1843), the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet. Existing stands of Redwood occupy only a fraction of the large area in California and Oregon where they originally grew before the arrival of European settlers. Virgin forests remain in several state parks, as well as in the Redwoods National Park and along the Redwoods Highway. But there is still some question concerning the status of the species outside of these parks. The Redwood industry maintains that selective logging, leaving seed trees, and planting in tree farms assure the future of this species. Conservationists feel that every effort should be made to maintain this magnificent tree at its present levels.
