Fun Facts about Sequoias

As a species, sequoias have been around since well before the dinosaurs became extinct.
 
The Muir Snag in Converse Basin (shown here) is the oldest reliably reported tree at 3,500 years.

Sequoias are the largest living thing on earth by volume. 

 

Sequoias are very resistant to disease and decay, and most insects do not attack their bark. 

Sequoias never stop growing. Though they can be severely damaged by lightning or fire, however most die from simply toppling over under their own massive, ever-increasing weight.

 

Regular forest fires are necessary for the sequoia propagation because the trees need good sunlight when they are young, and sunshine is most readily available right after a fire has cleared out the majority of the rest of the forest canopy.
 
Sequoias are fire resistant due to their thick, fibrous, tannin-infused outer bark that lacks sap.
 
Multiple strong fires in quick succession can burn through a sequoia’s outer layer of bark and remove the majority of the central heartwood core, yet the tree may still survive as long as enough bark remains.
 
One large sequoia that was cut in the Giant Forest Grove at 2,200 years of age showed in its rings approximately eighty fire scars over its lifetime. 

 

As sequoias grow taller, they lose the lower, shaded branches, creating a foliage top on a massive straight, smooth base.
 
A fully mature sequoia will typically grow enough wood in a year to equal the volume of a large tree from any other species.

A sequoia’s roots normally only extend down about five feet, then radiate outward in a circle with a diameter about as far out as the tree’s height. 

 

While the sequoia is the largest tree on earth, its cone is barely the size of a chicken egg.
 
A mature sequoia typically produces up to two thousand cones per year, and each cone contains approximately two hundred seeds.
 
Ninety-one thousand seeds weigh one pound.
 
From a seed the size of an oatmeal flake grows a tree that can weigh up to 2.7 million pounds and be as tall as a twenty-five-story building.