Redwood

(Sequoia sempervirens)

Color Photographs: © by and courtesy of Charles Webber, California Academy of Sciences

Color Photographs: © Nearctica.com, Inc.

Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)

Identifying Characters: The coastal California range of this species, the distinctive cones, the combination of "normal needles" in two lateral rows and small scales on the leaders, and the size of the older trees make this a very distinctive species.

Similar Species: The species might be confused with the Giant Sequoia. However the two species have entirely different ranges. Giant Sequoia is found in the mountains of eastern California and Redwood along the Pacific coast.

Measurements: Redwood boasts the tallest trees in the world. Typical mature individuals range in height between 200 to 325 feet and the tallest known individual is 368 feet. The diameter of the trunk at breast height is 10 to 15 feet.

Cones: Cones ovate, appearing round when open; red-brown when mature and consisting of flattened, convoluted cone scales.

Needles: Needles of two types; most common type needle-shaped, arranged in two lateral rows on the branch, 0.50 to0.75 inches long; color dark green above and suffused with white below giving the needle a slightly blue tint; needles on leaders and near cones very short, scale-like, about 0.25 inches in length and closely wrapped around the twig.

Bark: Red-brown, thick and fibrous, deeply divided into broad scaly ridges.

Native Range: The range of Redwood extends southward from two groves on the Chetco River in the extreme southwest corner of Oregon (lat. 42° 09' N.), to Salmon Creek Canyon in the Santa Lucia Mountains of southern Monterey County, CA (lat. 35° 41' N.). This Redwood belt is an irregular coastal strip about 724 km (450 mi) long and generally 8 to 56 km (5 to 35 mi) wide. Within this region, Redwood trees grow now, or could grow, on an estimated 647 500 ha (1.6 million acres). Of this area, 260 200 ha (643,000 acres) comprise the commercial coast Redwood forest type (more than 50 percent Redwood stocking). The remainder of the area contains parks, other forest types containing Redwood, and recently logged Redwood type. The old-growth Redwood, much of which is in State and National Parks, occupies less than 80 940 ha (200,000 acres). The old-growth in commercial forests will be harvested within the next few decades. A major discontinuity splits the type in southern Humboldt County, California. South of Sonoma County, California, Redwoods grow in detached and irregular areas to the southern extremity of the range. (Silvics of North America. 1990. Agriculture Handbook 654.)

Habitat: Redwood is found most commonly in nearly pure stands on alluvial soils on flatlands and benches along the Pacific Coast of central and northern California.