NL·0049Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Sequoia sempervirens
- Family
- Cupressaceae
- Native to
- A narrow fog belt along the Pacific coast from south-western Oregon to Big Sur, California
- Habitat
- Temperate rainforest, Coastal fog forest
Coast redwood
Sequoia sempervirens
Also calledPalo colorado (Spanish) · Küstenmammutbaum (German) · Séquoia toujours vert (French) · 北美红杉 běiměi hóngshān (Chinese)
The tallest living thing known. Hyperion, found in Redwood National Park in 2006, measured about 116 m, taller than a 35-storey building. Redwoods drink fog through their leaves, sprout new trunks from burls, and grow whole hanging gardens in their crowns.
Sequoia sempervirens, the coast redwood, is the sole living species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. Other common names include coastal redwood and California redwood. It is a coniferous, long-lived, monoecious tree that has reached ages of about 2,000 years. The species has produced the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 116.22 m (381.3 ft) in height and up to 8.9 m (29 ft) in diameter at breast height. These trees are also among the longest-living trees on Earth. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iAbsorbs fog water directly through its foliage, which matters in rainless California summers
- iiResprouts from basal burls and root crowns after fire or felling, forming 'fairy rings' of clones
- iiiBuilds canopy soils that support ferns, huckleberries and even other trees high above the ground
- ivHas a hexaploid genome, with six sets of chromosomes, unusual among conifers
At the table
Not eaten. Not considered significantly toxic.
Fruit & seed
Fruit
Small woody cone
Ripens: Ripens in autumn
Olive-sized cones 1.5–3 cm long that release tiny seeds.
Seed
~3–4 mm
Tiny two-winged brown seeds, mostly of low viability
- Dispersal
- Wind; most regeneration is clonal sprouting
- Germination
- No pretreatment needed; sow on moist mix, germination often under 10%
How to grow it
Hardiness (USDA zones)
USDA 7–9. Survives winters down to about -18 °C.
- Light
- Full sun to partial shade
- Water
- High; humidity and summer moisture
- Soil
- Deep, moist, well-drained loam
- Propagation
- Seed, cuttings, or burl sprouts
- To harvest
- Ornamental or timber; cones from 5–15 years
- Climates
- Temperate, Oceanic, Mediterranean
- 1Sow fresh seed in spring on moist, sterile mix (expect low germination)
- 2Keep seedlings humid and sheltered from drying wind
- 3Plant out in deep soil and water through dry summers for the first years
- 4Give it space: it can add 1 m or more a year in good conditions
Can it grow where you are?
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
A narrow fog belt along the Pacific coast from south-western Oregon to Big Sur, California
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Sequoia sempervirens in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Old-growth logging after the 1849 Gold Rush removed about 95% of the original redwood forest; the Save the Redwoods League, founded in 1918, began buying groves back. The Yurok and Tolowa used fallen redwood for plank houses and dugout canoes.
Curiosity
Hyperion's exact location is kept quiet, and since 2022 visitors who go off-trail to find it risk a fine of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 47372.