Redwood Tree Facts
The Redwood is a survivor that at one time spanned the globe, but is not confined to small areas. Redwood tree facts are truly mind boggling in their scope.
Redwood Tree Facts
The might redwood tree is divided into three different genera. The common names are the Coastal Redwood, the Sierra Redwood, and the Dawn Redwood. The Dawn Redwood is the only one of the three that is deciduous. The other two varieties are evergreen. When you are listing redwood tree facts, you have to get used to dealing with some large numbers. The redwood has the distinction of producing the highest volume of biomass per unit of land surface.
The redwoods are thought to have grown across the entire globe back in the days of the dinosaurs. Changing conditions have slowly reduced their range. The Coastal Redwoods grow along a narrow strip of coastline in the Northwestern United States. The Sierra Redwoods are restricted to some narrow valleys in the Sierra Mountains. The rarest of all, the Dawn Redwood, can be found in a single valley in China.
The Coastal Redwood grows higher than any other tree. Although the sequoias have a greater diameter and therefore more bulk, the Coastal Redwood grows higher. The former champion was a tree named the Stratosphere Giant was discovered in 2000. It towered to a record height of 367.3 feet. In 2006 a team located three Coastal Redwoods that topped this record. The new champion appears to be a tree named Hyperion that is thought to be 378.1 feet. It is hard to imagine the immensity of these super trees unless you have actually seen one. Hyperion is taller than the Statue of Liberty and its base in wider around and through than a Greyhound bus.
The trees are also very old. Some of the Coastal Redwoods are thought to be at least 2,000 years old. In the wild, the average age runs between 500 to 700 years. The Coastal Redwoods produce cones at the tips of its tallest branches. The seeds in the cones are about 3x the size of a pinhead. It takes about 125,000 of them to make a pound of seeds. In puts the mighty oak from acorn idea to shame.
The trees grow rapidly, but it their age that gives them time to grow so large. One of the things that contribute to the age is the fact that the tree appears to have only two natural enemies. These are wind and fire. Insects associated with the trees do them no harm. Ants and termites seem to be repelled by the chemical composition of the bark. They have no known diseases. Even older trees have some protection from fire because of their thick protective bark. Fire destroys mostly younger trees.