It's hard to believe that these huge trees begin life with such a small way. This redwood cone contains approximately 10,000 redwood seeds. Simply amazing! However, only about one out of a million of the seeds is successful in becoming a tree. The most common way for a redwood to reproduce is by cloning itself. When a trees becomes stressed due to fire or wind damage, it will clone itself, sending up new shoots. Sometimes it will send up one and sometimes it will send up dozens!
The scientific name is sequoia sempervirens which means ever living. These trees truly do whatever it takes to keep living. They can be burned out shells and still survive.
despite being completely burned out from a fire long ago.
The trees are resistant to fungus and insects and does not easily rot due to the high level of tannic acid it contains. Walking through the forest we would see hemlock and tanoak trees covered in moss and other fungus, but the redwood trees' bark was completely pristine.
The tallest trees reach a height of 379 feet, and the oldest known tree is approximately 2,200 years old! This tree below is 1,500 years old and has a diameter of over 23 feet. At one time it was the tallest tree in the world, but some time ago it got it's top blown off, though it's still very impressive.
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