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Sequoia facts. Sequoia is a giant tree. Not afraid of fires

Some of the most amazing trees on our planet are sequoias. These majestic giants have been growing up and down for thousands of years and today are the highest plants in the world.

Giant sequoias are one of the subspecies of cypress. The sight of these huge trees, whose trunks and crowns go up tens of meters, involuntarily arouses admiration ...

The oldest sequoias known today are over 3,500 years old.

The average height of the trees is about 60 meters, but there are also entire groves over 90 meters high. To date, about fifty sequoias are known, whose height exceeds the 105-meter mark.

The tallest known tree on our planet is the Hyperion sequoia, which grows in Redwood National Park near San Francisco. The height of this giant is 115.5 meters

There is an interesting subspecies of sequoia - sequoiadendrons, which are distinguished by a smaller height, but a large trunk diameter. The most voluminous sequoia in the world belongs to this subspecies, it is the 83.8-meter "General Sherman", the base diameter of which is 11.1 meters, and the trunk coverage is 31.3 meters. The volume of the tree is 1487 m 3

Thanks to the colossal area of the trunks, even small cafes and dance floors were arranged on the log cabins of fallen trees.

It is usually difficult to imagine the real scale from a photograph, so I specifically found a few pictures in which people are present - to make it easier to compare sizes)

Only one tree was honored with the name of the people's leader. So lucky was the "giant pine" that the Iroquois Indian tribe from North America, wishing to perpetuate the memory of their outstanding leader Sekwu, called his name. The Iroquois leader Sekwu led the liberation struggle of the Iroquois against foreign enslavers, was the first public educator, invented the alphabet for the Cherokee tribe.

Numerous attempts have been made to rename this tree. So, immediately after the discovery of sequoia by Europeans, they called it a California pine, and later called it a mammoth tree for the resemblance of old sagging branches to mammoth tusks. Some time passed, and the English botanist Lindley, who first scientifically described this tree, gave it a new name - wellingtonia in honor of the English commander Wellington, who distinguished himself in the battle with Napoleon's troops near Waterloo. The Americans also decided to do their bit and hastened to christen the sequoia washingtonia in memory of their first president, George Washington. But the priority remained with the Iroquois.

sequoias (Sequoioideae) - a subfamily of plants of the Cypress family ( Cupressaceae), previously considered as an independent family.

The subfamily includes three genera:

Sequoia (Sequoia): the only modern species is evergreen sequoia ( Sequoia sempervirens).

sequoiadendron (Sequoiadendron): the only modern species is the giant sequoiadendron ( Sequoiadendron giganteum).

metasequoia (Metasequoia): the only modern species is the relic Metasequoia glyptostroboid (Metasequoia glyptostroboides).

What is interesting about this tree? Sequoia is one of the most unusual and majestic trees. Numerous travelers have always enthusiastically described and describe the sequoia, endowing it with the most flattering epithets, admiring its extraordinary size, marveling at its longevity and monumentality. Only by a few meters are the largest sequoia trees inferior in height to the mighty representative of the plant world - the almond-leaved eucalyptus from Australia. And in terms of the volume of the trunk, resembling a giant column, and longevity, the sequoia eclipsed all known trees. Crowned far in the sky with dense, wide crowns, these trees reach the height of the spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress, or the 56th floor of a modern building.

The diameter of the trunk of some sequoia trees is 20-23 meters, and the weight of wood of one tree sometimes exceeds 1000 tons. More than 2000 cubic meters of wood pulp is produced by one tree. Only a train of 60 wagons can transport such a giant. Avid for all sorts of sensations, Americans have repeatedly surprised Europeans by demonstrating the size of this tree. So, at one of the exhibitions in Europe, two cross sections of stumps of old sequoias were exhibited. On one of them, a piano with an orchestra of musicians and an ensemble of dancers of 35 people were freely placed, on the other, a printing house was built, where the newspaper “Bulletin of the Giant Tree” was published. On the eve of the opening of the Paris International Exhibition of 1900, among other American wonders, the largest board in the world, which was specially made from the trunk of a large sequoia, was widely advertised. However, the Europeans did not manage to see this board, since the length of the board exceeded 100 meters and not a single captain undertook to transport oversized cargo across the ocean. So ingloriously ended this advertising idea, which cost the life of a unique monument of nature.

JFKCom

Interesting stories about the sequoia have long been included in all popular publications about plants. They often recall how an enterprising American set up a restaurant with 50 seats in the old hollow trunk of one giant sequoia, and a garage for tourists' cars in the trunk of another tree felled by a storm. A kind of tunnel in the trunk of the huge Wawona Tree sequoia growing in Yosemite National Park (California, USA) is also widely advertised. The tunnel was laid back in 1881, and during the construction of a modern highway, it was significantly expanded. Now not only cars, but also buses of impressive dimensions pass freely in it.

One enterprising businessman piecemeal removed the bark from a large sequoia to a height of 25 meters. To do this, scaffolding was erected around the tree, as in the construction of a multi-storey building, and five people removed the bark for three months. The numbered parts of the bark were re-folded in San Francisco and put on display for a fee, from the outside or from the inside, for which an entrance hole was left. At the same time, it was reported that the miracle tree, having lost its bark, seemed not to have suffered at all and continued to grow, as before. A peculiar building was furnished, a piano was placed in it, and up to 100 people gathered for concerts at the same time.

Evergreen sequoia in the park of the Palais aux Loup, Chatenet-Malabri, France. © Line1

The sequoia is certainly present in the stories of the mythical lumberjack giant, the hero of North American folklore, Paul Beneyan. In the sequoia cutting area, he, along with his blue bull Beibu, demonstrates extraordinary strength and amazing dexterity.

In ancient prehistoric times, sequoia grew all over the globe. Sequoia forests also grew on the territory of our country. It was distributed over almost the entire northern hemisphere up to the latitude of the island of Svalbard. Now only in California the giant sequoia has been preserved along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. After the predatory destruction of this tree, about 30 small groves remained in the place of vast mighty forests. The most valuable sequoia foci, although with a great delay, are declared protected, and, like individual trees that have received personal names, are protected by law. Here you can meet the mighty "father of the forests", and in a pair of tall sequoia "forest mother", and the veteran "gray-haired giant". Americans consider the 3,500-year-old "General Sherman" to be the oldest sequoia, towering almost 100 meters in the national park at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, its trunk diameter is about 15 meters. Practical Americans calculated that 30 six-room country houses could be built from the wood of this giant.

And one of these extraordinary representatives of the forest world, the Iroquois has recently given a name that is equally dear to the workers of the whole world - the name of Lenin. This was written in his poem by the poet Andrei Voznesensky, who visited the sequoia park while in California.

Joe Mabel

A lot has already been said about the longevity of the sequoia. Numerous studies show that its age often reaches 6000 years. Some sequoias are many centuries older than the Egyptian pyramids.

It is important to note that the longevity of the sequoia is put at the service of science. With the help of these ancient representatives of the plant world, scientists managed to look into the depths of millennia and obtain reliable data on the climate of bygone times using annual rings on the cross sections of trunks. Reacting to changes in the weather, the trees, in strict accordance with the amount of precipitation each year, increased either thicker or thinner layers of wood - growth rings. Scientists examined the trunks of over 540 of these giants, and these materials made it possible to track the weather for more than 2000 years. It became known, for example, that 2000, 900 and 600 years ago there were periods very rich in precipitation, while periods 1200 and 1400 years from us were characterized by extremely long and severe droughts.

American scientists also established the weather and a closer time using the method described. It turned out that 1900 and 1934 were marked for the North American continent by the most severe droughts in the last 1200 years.

Giant Sequoias near Hillsborough Courthouse, Oregon, USA. These are 5 of 8 Giant Sequoias planted by John Porter, owner of a small farm, in 1880. They are called Heritage, these trees are of great importance for the entire region as a memory left by the ancestors of the development of the region and its agriculture. © M.O. Stevens

Because of the reddish, as if impregnated with carmine wood, sequoia is sometimes called mahogany. Its wood is valued not only for its original color, but also for its unusual physical properties: it is light, like that of aspen, and porous, like that of paulownia, it perfectly resists decay in soil and water, and is easily amenable to any processing.

The bark of the sequoia is much thicker than that of other tree species: 70-80 centimeters. Reliably covering the trunk, it absorbs water like a sponge. Thanks to this structure of the bark, these trees are not afraid of fires.

The sequoia is fast growing and accumulates ten times more wood per year than our birch, which is considered by arborists to be a fast-growing species.

Photograph of Giant Sequoia at the John J. Tyler Arboretum. The tree has been the largest tree in the state of Pennsylvania since 1950. Planted in 1856. The central trunk was damaged in 1895, causing the tree to grow into several trunks. As of 2006, the height is 29m, the trunk circumference is 3.93m, and the crown spread is 10.9m. The tree might be the largest Sequoiadendron giant in the eastern US, but there are even taller trees in Bristol, Rhode Island. © Derek Ramsey

Like other trees, the giant sequoia has a number of original decorative forms, highly valued in green building: with golden, silver, blue and even variegated needles, as well as with a narrow, almost columnar or weeping crown.

In its long life, the sequoia has undergone many botanical changes. In the old days, for example, it numbered up to 15 species, and now there are only two of them: the giant sequoia, which was discussed here, and very close to it, no less majestic evergreen sequoia. Botanists distinguish them only by a number of minor features, and some even refer to different genera. The evergreen sequoia is often larger than the giant sequoia. The largest ("founder's tree"), growing in California near the city of Eureka, reaches a height of 132 meters.

Young Sequoiadendron giant growing in Big Pine, California. Planted in 1913 to commemorate the opening of the highway. During one of the most severe crises, the United States intensively built roads throughout the country to improve the economic condition of the country. © Dcrjsr

Currently, dendrologists and gardeners are doing a lot of work on the artificial breeding of sequoia. It is grown from the lightest and very small (up to 3 millimeters in diameter) seeds. 150-200 of them are contained in small cones, somewhat reminiscent of Scots pine cones. The efforts of our scientists to acclimatize sequoia did not immediately give encouraging results. Only after years of experimentation did it begin to grow in many parks in the Crimea, the Caucasus, in the south of Central Asia and in Transcarpathia. In our conditions, it can tolerate frosts of no more than 18-20 degrees. The seeds obtained from sequoias acclimatized in our country germinated poorly at first, and only after the use of artificial pollination was it possible to increase their germination to 50-60 percent. Sequoia vegetative propagation is now well mastered: cuttings or grafting.

The pioneers of the acclimatization of giant trees in our country were botanists from the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Sequoia has been cultivated here since 1850. In Nikitsky Garden there is the oldest copy of the giant sequoia in Europe, in many parks of the Southern Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, it has now become an almost obligatory tree. The height of some of its specimens (in the park of the village of Frunzenskoye in the Crimea, in the Batumi Botanical Garden on Cape Verde and in other places) exceeds 50 meters.

Giant Sequoias in Sequoia National Park (Ranges from the southern Sierra Nevada to eastern California). The park was created on September 25, 1890. The park is famous for its giant sequoias, including the General Sherman tree, one of the largest trees on Earth. "General Sherman" grows in a giant forest that also contains five of the ten largest trees in the world. © Dcrjsr

You can also get acquainted with sequoia greenhouse plants in Leningrad, Moscow, Minsk, Kyiv and some other cities of the former USSR.

Sequoia is a hero tree, one of the tallest and oldest trees on our planet. Its size is shocking, changing the idea of trees that we are used to in puppet cities. This feeling of being tiny will not leave you for a long time. It clearly does not fit into the framework of the perception of a modern person, which is usually equivalent to the size of a phone - the eyes part in different directions, wanting to embrace 111 meters of wildlife with a single glance and not clink glasses.

The ability to see the whole world without tearing it into frames was probably the most common thing for people who once lived among such giants.

Where is the name from?

Only one tree was honored with the name of the people's leader. This is what the Iroquois Indian tribe in North America did: wanting to perpetuate the memory of their outstanding leader, the Sekwa, they assigned his name to one of the most unusual and majestic trees. It was he, Sekwu, who invented Indian writing, led the liberation struggle of the Iroquois against foreign enslavers, and was the first public educator.

True, numerous attempts were made to rename the sequoia. So, immediately after the discovery of sequoia by Europeans, they called it a California pine, and later called it a mammoth tree (for the similarity of old sagging branches with mammoth tusks). Some time passed, and the English botanist Lindley, who first scientifically described this tree, gave it a new name - wellingtonia in honor of the English commander Wellington, who distinguished himself in the battle with Napoleon's troops at Waterloo. The Americans decided not to lag behind and hastened to christen the sequoia Washingtonia, in memory of their first president, George Washington.

How long does a tree live?

Numerous studies show that its age can reach 6000 years: this is more than the entire ancient, middle and modern history of mankind. Some sequoias are many centuries older than the Egyptian pyramids.

Where does Sequoia grow?

Experts from many countries claim that in distant geological periods, sequoias grew all over the earth.

Now the oldest giant sequoia grows in the United States along the Pacific coast in a strip about 750 km long and 8 to 75 km wide from California to southwestern Oregon. Sequoia is also grown in the Canadian province of British Columbia, in the southeastern United States from East Texas to Maryland, Hawaii, New Zealand, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, South Africa and Mexico. Average heights are 30-750 m above sea level, sometimes trees grow near the shore, sometimes they climb to a height of up to 920 m. Sequoia loves the humidity that the sea air brings with it. The tallest and oldest trees grow in gorges and deep ravines, where currents of humid air can reach all year round and where fogs regularly occur. Trees growing above the fog layer (above 700 m) are lower and smaller due to drier, windier and cooler growing conditions.

Russian sequoia

The efforts of our scientists to acclimatize sequoia did not immediately give encouraging results. Only after many years of experimentation did it begin to grow in the parks of the Crimea, the Caucasus, in the south of Central Asia and in Transcarpathia. It has been established that under our conditions it can tolerate frosts of no more than 18-20 degrees.

The seeds obtained from our redwoods germinated poorly, and only after the use of artificial pollination, proposed by the Soviet Michurinists, was it possible to increase their germination to 50 - 60%. Vegetative propagation of sequoias is also well mastered: cuttings or grafting.

The pioneers of the acclimatization of giant trees in our country were botanists from the Nikitsky Botanical Garden. Sequoia has been cultivated here since 1850. It is in the Nikitsky Garden that the oldest copy of the giant sequoia in Europe is located, and in many parks of the Southern Crimea and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, it has now become an almost obligatory tree. The height of some of its specimens (in the park of the village of Frunzenskoye, in the Crimea, in the Batumi Botanical Garden on Cape Verde and in other places) exceeds 50 meters.

Why do scientists love sequoia?

The longevity of the sequoia is put at the service of science. With the help of these ancient inhabitants, scientists managed to look into the depths of millennia. Thanks to the annual rings on the cross sections of huge trunks, researchers have received quite reliable data on the climate of bygone times. After all, sequoias, reacting to weather changes, regularly and according to the amount of precipitation each year, increased thicker, then thinner layers of wood, or growth rings. Scientists have examined the trunks of over 450 such giants. These materials made it possible to track the weather for more than 2000 years. As a result, it became known, for example, that 2000, 900 and 600 years ago there were periods very rich in precipitation, and the periods 1200 and 1400 years apart from us were distinguished by extremely long and severe droughts.

With the help of redwoods, American scientists also learned the weather of a closer time. Thus, it was possible to establish that the years 1900 and 1934 were marked for the North American continent by the most severe droughts in the last 1200 years.

Not afraid of fires

The bark of an adult sequoia is about half a meter thick and absorbs water like a sponge. Thanks to this structure, these trees are not at all afraid of fires, which are not uncommon in coniferous forests - young trees with thin bark die, the old ones could not be destroyed by fire, and this is for thousands of years of constant attempts.

Lightning Favorite

The Sequoia pays a high price for its greatness. Proudly towering above the rest of the trees, it attracts lightning like a magnetized rod. Despite the deadly blows, many trees manage to survive by shedding scorched branches.

scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryotes
Kingdom: Plants
Department: Conifers
Class: Conifers (Pinopsida Burnett, 1835)
Order: Pine
Family: Cypress
Subfamily: Sequoias
Genus: Sequoia
International scientific name
Sequoia Endl. (1847), nom. cons.
Daughter taxa
Sequoia evergreen
Sequoia sempervirens (D. Don) Endl.
conservation status
VU from English. Vulnerable species - vulnerable species. Protected status given to species that are at risk of becoming endangered

Botanical description

Sequoia is an evergreen monoecious tree.

In monoecious plants, female and male flowers (in the broadest sense - male and female generative organs) are on the same individual ("in the same house"). Monoeciousness is more common in wind-pollinated plants. Monoecious plants include: watermelon, birch, beech, walnut, oak, corn, hazel, cucumber, alder, pumpkin and other pumpkin, breadfruit. When monoecious is understood in a broad sense, spruce, pine, and many mosses and algae also belong to monoecious plants.

The crown is conical, the branches grow horizontally or with a slight downward slope. The bark is very thick, up to 30 cm thick, and relatively soft, fibrous, red-brown in color immediately after peeling (hence the name "mahogany"), darkens with time. The root system consists of shallow, widely spread lateral roots. The leaves of young trees are elongated and flat, 15-25 mm long, in the upper part of the crown of old trees they are scaly, 5 to 10 mm long.

Useful for its qualities and very thick (in comparison with other tree species) sequoia bark, which, like a sponge, absorbs water well. Thanks to this structure of the bark, these trees are not at all afraid of fires.

Cones are ovoid, 15-32 mm long, with 15-25 spirally twisted scales; pollination occurs at the end of winter, ripening - after 8-9 months. Each cone contains 3-7 seeds, each of which is 3-4 mm long and 0.5 mm wide. The seeds are released when the cone dries and opens.

The redwood genome (at 31,500 megabases) is one of the largest among the conifers, and it is the only known hexaploid among gymnosperms to date.

How to grow Sequoia at home

Initially, the sequoia did not grow in our climate, but thanks to the efforts of landscapers and dendrologists, species resistant to a cool climate appeared. It is better to find the place where these trees grow near you. Having received sequoia seeds, they should be prepared for planting. It is better to do this in early spring, so that by the onset of next winter, small sequoias have time to get stronger. To begin with, the seeds should “overwinter” in the refrigerator for about a week. At the same time, you should not put them in the freezer, a temperature of about +6 C is enough. Then you need to arrange a “thaw” for them, soaking them in melted water at room temperature for a couple of days. Seeds should be planted in sandy-clay, well-moistened soil, sprinkled with earth by 1-2 mm, and it is important that sunlight falls on the seeds. At this time, they can be covered with cling film or a transparent cap.

A couple of times a day, crops must be ventilated and sprayed. It is very important at the same time to keep the ground moist, but not wet, since the sprouts often die from waterlogging. To avoid this, the sprouts should be sprayed with a spray bottle, and not watered with a watering can. The germination rate of sequoias is low, in the best case, 15-25% of the seeds will sprout. The first shoots may appear after 2 days, or maybe after 2 months.

As soon as you have sprouts, the film or cap must be removed immediately. Without free air circulation, the sprouts quickly die. A couple of days after hatching, the sprout sheds the dry skin of the seeds. If he has any difficulty with this, you can gently help him. Young shoots love the sun, but they should be shaded from direct sunlight. Small sequoias should not be kept close to heating appliances. Dry air is harmful to them. After 5 months, you will already have a miniature Christmas tree. Sequoias under the age of 3 years should be kept in a pot and watered regularly. Dry periods are stressful for redwoods, as a result of which it greatly slows down growth. Biennial plants can be kept outside in warm weather. For the winter, the tree should be brought into the house. From spring it can be kept outdoors in a well-lit area. A tree 1-1.5 m high can already be planted in open ground. In European climatic conditions, the sequoia can withstand frosts down to -18 C.

Lumberjacks hunting for Sequoia

For reddish, as if impregnated with carmine wood, sequoia is sometimes also called mahogany. Its wood is valued not only because of its original color, but also because of its unusual physical properties: it is light, like that of aspen, and porous, like that of paulownia, it perfectly resists decay in earth and water, and is easily amenable to any processing.

Data

The tallest sequoia, named Hyperion, was discovered in the summer of 2006 by Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor in Redwood National Park north of San Francisco. The height of the tree is 115.61 meters. The researchers said that the woodpecker's damage to the tree at the top prevented the sequoia from reaching a height of 115.8 meters (380 feet).

15 currently growing trees have a height of more than 110 m, and 47 trees have a height of more than 105 m.
Some argue that the height of the sequoia, cut down in 1912, was 115.8 m.
The second place in height after the sequoia is occupied by Douglasia (Pseudotsuga Menzies). The tallest living pseudo-hemzies of Menzies, "Doerner Fir" (formerly known as "Brummit fir"), is 99.4 m tall.

In 2004, a Northern Arizona University study was published in the journal Nature, according to which the maximum theoretical height of a sequoia (or any other tree) is limited to 122-130 meters due to gravity and friction between water and the pores of the wood through which it oozes.
The most voluminous tree among redwoods is Titan Del Norte (English) Russian. The volume of this sequoia is estimated at 1044.7 m³, height - 93.57 m, and diameter - 7.22 m. Among all trees growing on Earth, only 15 giant sequoias (sequoiadendrons) are more massive than it. Sequoiadendrons (English giant sequoia) are somewhat shorter, but they have a thicker trunk than sequoias. So, the volume of the largest copy of the sequoiadendron "General Sherman" is 1487 m³.

Sequoia National Park

Sequoia National Park is a national park in the United States, located in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, east of the city of Visalia in California. The park was founded in 1890, the third after the national parks Yellowstone (since 1872) and Mackinac (1875-1895). The area of the park is 1635 km². The park has a mountainous terrain, rising from a height of about 400 meters above sea level in the foothills to the highest point in the contiguous 48 states - the top of Mount Whitney (4421.1 m). The park borders Kings Canyon National Park; since 1943, both parks have been managed by the US National Park Service as a single division - Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The park is best known for its giant sequoias, including a specimen called the General Sherman, the largest (by volume of wood) tree on earth. In 2009, the wood volume of this tree was just under 1,500 cubic meters. General Sherman grows up in the Giant Forest Grove, which contains five of the ten largest trees in the world by volume of timber. The giant forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park, where, among other redwoods, grows the General Grant tree - the second largest tree in the world.
Other attractions include Moro Rock, which can be climbed by a specially built staircase in the 1930s to look around the surroundings from a height of 75 meters above the ground.

It makes me want to draw a couple of dinosaurs here.

How the Sequoia was photographed

(as it is also commonly called) is rightfully considered one of the largest trees in the world. Also, this long-liver is one of the many wonders of the world. This giant coniferous tree can reach a height of more than 110 meters, and its trunk is 12 meters in diameter. miracle of nature is simply unthinkable. The giant sequoia lives for over 5,000 years.

History of occurrence

To date, scientists have come to the conclusion that a tree of this breed appeared on earth as early as 140 million years ago. This is proved by the found and studied fossils and other geological deposits, on the basis of which it is possible to calculate the approximate period of the appearance of a huge natural creature on Earth.

In ancient times, the sequoia spread to the territories that today are known as France, Japan, and even the Giant Tree existed already in the Jurassic period, when the planet was inhabited by dinosaurs, and even then forests occupied vast territories in the northern hemisphere. According to experts, 50 million years ago, due to the fact that the temperature on Earth dropped dramatically, the ice age began. The giant sequoia has stopped spreading across the planet and its range has greatly decreased. After warming, these trees remained at the same stage of development and remained to grow in only one region.

The first giant sequoias were discovered by the Spaniards, who in 1769 sent an expedition to the area of present-day San Francisco. Mammoth trees got their name from the linguist and botanist S. Endlifer, who was the first to call them "red trees". Initially, no one knew what to do with these huge centenarians. They were practically not exploited, this is due to the fact that strong trunks were almost impossible to knock down, since neither an ax nor a saw took them. On top of that, the wood turned out to be absolutely unsuitable for construction, as, for example, pine trees or other giant sequoias were even exterminated in 1848. By the time more than half of the trees had already been destroyed, the US authorities decided to start protecting the amazing creations of nature.

Our days

Today, natural sequoia forests are considered public property, but they have survived only on the Pacific coast of California. The mammoth tree also grows on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This is the only place where the remains of amazing and beautiful forest giants are still preserved. This reserve covers an area of about 670 kilometers of the coast and about 45 kilometers inland. The giant sequoia does not grow high in the mountains, because it requires high humidity. Nevertheless, the mammoth tree copes well with low temperatures, which just helped this wonder of the world to survive during the ice age.

Every year, thousands of tourists come to the United States who want to be photographed at the foot of the tree. The reserve, where the giant sequoia grows, is also popular with the Americans, who even named one such giant after the famous American commander. This giant is protected, like any other monument, and is a cultural asset throughout America. Despite the interest from scientists, it is not cut down under any pretext.

Tree "General Sherman"

The giant sequoia "General Sherman" grows in the Sierra Nevada and is considered one of the most amazing plants on earth. The height of the tree is more than 83 meters, and its trunk volume is 1486 cubic meters with a weight of more than 6000 tons. According to rough estimates, the tree is somewhere around 2700 years old, and it still continues to grow. Every year, the giant builds up as much wood as an 18-meter tree can. Scientists still continue to study the only one in the world that has seen the entire history of mankind in its lifetime.

Another famous giant

In addition to the "General Sherman" in the reserve there is another amazing tree - a giant sequoia (sequoiadendron). California, where it was cut down, still preserves the foundation of the giant. Moreover, it was also honored by becoming the unspoken symbol of the state. The tree was cut down in 1930 at the age of 1930! On its core, some sectors are combined with paint and the following is written on them:

1066 - year
1212 - year of signing
1492 - the year of the discovery of America.
1776 - the year of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
1930 is the year of felling.

Description of sequoia

The tree has a thick bark, the thickness of which is 60 cm. Wood moisture is completely free of oily substances, but tannin is contained in large quantities, making it resistant to any forest fires. Even burned trunks continue to grow further, while other conifers die after such lesions. The wood of this tree is not subject to attacks by insects, fungi, diseases and rot. Its roots grow so deep in the ground that the chance of the tree falling in a strong gust of wind is zero. The giant sequoia, whose pictures and photographs are amazing, has a pinkish bark that becomes redder closer to the core. It does not rot for a long time, withstands huge loads and therefore is excellent for a wide variety of purposes, although it is not actively used.

reproduction

An adult sequoia tree produces a huge amount of seeds, but only a tiny part of them germinate successfully, and even those that have made their way through the ground are forced to fight for their lives. The fact is that young shoots branch along their entire length, but the older they get, the more lower branches they have. Thus, the tree forms a strong dome that absolutely does not let in daylight. The giant sequoia forests do not allow anything to grow under this green canopy. Therefore, young shoots have to deal with low light, therefore it is very difficult to talk about the natural distribution of mammoth trees on earth. In the event that humanity will actively use such wood, there will be a need to create special reserves in which young trees will be grown.

SEQUOIA
(Sequoia), a genus of evergreen conifers in the Taxodiaceae family (Taxodiaceae). The only species - evergreen sequoia (S. sempervirens) - is considered a symbol of California. These are the tallest trees in the world, and are also famous for their beautiful, straight-grained, rot-resistant wood. Evergreen sequoia forests stretch in a narrow strip approx. 720 km along the US Pacific coast from Monterey County in northern California to the Chetco River in southern Oregon. The evergreen sequoia needs a very humid climate, so it does not go further from the coast than 32-48 km, remaining in the zone of influence of sea fog. Once upon a time, sequoias, along with other taxodia representatives, were distributed in many areas of the Northern Hemisphere, but the last glaciation preserved them only on the western coast of North America, along with a close species of giant sequoiadendron, mammoth tree, or wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), also the only representative of its genus, called sometimes giant sequoia (S. gigantea). Evergreen sequoia is bred as an ornamental plant in the southeastern United States and in temperate European regions. The average height of an evergreen sequoia is about 90 m, and the record height is 117 m. It was noted in the Redwood Creek tract in California. The trunk diameter often reaches 6-7.6 m and can increase by 2.5 cm per year. The evergreen sequoia matures at 400-500 years, and specimens over 1500 years old are not uncommon (the oldest known is about 2200 years old). The tree reproduces well by root offspring, stump shoots and seeds, which, after germination, give rapidly growing shoots. The crown is narrow, starting above the lower third of the trunk. Oval cones and short shoots with flat bluish-gray needles give it beauty and splendor. The bark is thick, reddish, deeply furrowed. The sapwood is pale yellow or white, and the heartwood is various shades of red. The root system is formed by lateral roots that go deep into the soil. The evergreen sequoia and the mammoth tree are close to the glyptostrobus metasequoia (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), which occurs in a very limited area in China. There are two varieties of evergreen sequoia - pressed (var. adpressa), which is smaller in size, and gray (var. glauca) - with a bluish color of needles.
SEQUOIA EVERGREEN

mammoth tree

Collier Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

Synonyms:

See what "SEquoia" is in other dictionaries:

- (Sequoia), a genus of evergreen coniferous trees of the family. taxodiaceae. Unity, species S. evergreen (S. sempervirens). Belongs to the tallest trees (reaches a height of 110 112 m and a diameter of 6 10 m). Lives St. 3000 years. Grows in the mountains of California and South. Oregon… … Biological encyclopedic dictionary

Or WELLINGTONIA tree from this. cypress, grows in sowing. America: some reach 300 ft. height, trunk circumference 94 ft. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. sequoia (named after the leader of the Indian ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

A genus of coniferous trees in the Taxodiaceae family. The only type of sequoia is evergreen, the height of St. 100 m, diameter 6 11 m. Natural plantations only in the mountains of California and South. Oregon (USA). Cultivated for light and durable wood (use ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Sequoiadendron, wellingtonia Dictionary of Russian synonyms. sequoia n., number of synonyms: 3 wellingtonia (5) ... Synonym dictionary

SEquoia, and, wives. Giant relic conifer native to California. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

A genus of coniferous plants from the family. Taxodiaceae. The fossil is known from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous; acquires wide development in the Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Today it is only preserved in California. Geological dictionary: in 2 volumes. M.: Nedra. Under … Geological Encyclopedia

Sequoia- (Sequoyah) (1760 (70?) 1843), educator of the Cherokee people, who created an alphabet of 85 characters for the language of his tribe. The alphabet is also known as the talking leaves. The date of its adoption is considered to be 1821. Later he took the name George Gist, ... ... The World History

This term has other meanings, see Sequoia (meanings). ? Sequoia ... Wikipedia

Sequoia- Giant sequoia. Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Sequoia, a genus of coniferous trees (taxodiaceae family). The only species of sequoia is evergreen, height over 100 m, diameter 6 11 m. It grows in the mountains along the west coast of the USA ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Sequoia), nat. park in California (USA). Created in 1890 on the square. 163.1 thousand hectares for the protection of the unique landscapes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, incl. 32 groves of giant sequoia. There are more than 70 species of mammals and 120 species of birds. Forms a single protected ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia

Books

Book: manual / instruction manual for the TOYOTA SEQUOIA navigation system (TOYOTA SEQUOIA) from 2008 release,. A detailed description of the navigation system of Toyota Sequoia cars, the beginning of production - 2008 ...
Book: manual / instruction manual for operation and maintenance of TOYOTA SEQUOIA (TOYOTA SEQUOIA) gasoline since 2008 of release,. This manual has already become a handy book for many Toyota Sequoia owners, as it is addressed specifically to motorists. The publication does not contain repair instructions, but contains high-quality…