California State Trees
Coast Redwood (common name) Sequoia sempervirens Giant Sequoia (common name) Sequoiadendron giganteum (scientific name) Overview California redwood was designated the official state tree of California by the state legislature in 1937. Once common throughout the Northern Hemisphere, redwoods are found only on the Pacific Coast. Many groves and stands of the towering trees are preserved in state and national parks and forests. There are actually two genera of this tree: coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Both are the state trees of California. The coast redwoods are the tallest trees in the world; one reaching over 379 feet tall grows in Redwood National and State Parks. One giant sequoia, the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, is over 274 feet high and more than 102 feet in circumference at its base; it is widely considered to be the world's largest tree in overall volume. Close-up STATUS Official PHYSICAL DETAILS    Coast Redwood Giant Sequoia Height 370+ ft (113+ m) 165-280 ft (50-95 m) Diameter 20 ft (7 m) 18-57 ft (6-17 m) Bark up to 12 in (30 cm) thick; soft, fibrous with a bright red-brown when freshly exposed fibrous, furrowed, and may be 3 ft (90 cm) thick at the base of the columnar trunk. Seed Cones ovoid, 15-32 mm long, with 15-25 spirally arranged scales 4-7 cm long with 30-50 spirally arranged scales and an average of 230 seeds per cone. Leaves dark green above, and with two blue-white stomatal bands below; arranged spirally awl-shaped, 3-6 mm long, and arranged spirally on the shoots LIFESPAN Coast Redwood has a lifespan of over 200 years, and Giant Sequoia can live for over 2,000 years. HABITAT Coast redwoods live along the foggy coast range, where they thrive in mild weather and rainfall up to 120 inches per year. Giant sequoias grow on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a much drier habitat.   Coast Redwood Giant Sequoia Range narrow strip of land approximately 450 miles (750 km) in length and 5-35 miles (8-56 km) in width along the Pacific coast western Sierra Nevada, occurring in a total of 68 groves comprising a total area of only 35,607 acres (144.16 sq km) Elevation 100-3,300 ft (30-1,000 m) 4,600-6,600 ft (1,400-2,000 m) in the north, and 5,600-7,000 ft  (1,700-2,150 m) to the south REPRODUCTION Type: sexual and asexual Age at first seed production: 5-15 years Seed maturity: 18-20 months (typically remain green and closed for up to 20 years) Viability of seed: 15 percent Pollination: late winter TRIVIA The trees are named after Sequoya (1770-1843), a Cherokee chief and inventor of the Cherokee alphabet—even though Sequoya lived in the southeast United States nowhere near the tree's habitat. The giant sequoia is often regarded as the world's largest living thing. General Sherman, a tree measuring almost 275 feet (83.8 m) high with a volume of 52,508 cubic feet (1,486.9 m3), is the largest.  It is thought to be between 2,300-2,700 years old. Redwoods can reproduce asexually by layering or sprouting from the root crown, stump, or even fallen branches; if a tree collapses, it will generate a row of new trees along its trunk.
	Click to enlarge an image California Redwood California Redwood Leaves California Redwood Cones California Redwood Bark Coast Redwood Distribution Map (pdf) shows very small range, visible when image is enlarged Giant Sequoia Distribution Map (pdf) shows very small range, visible when image is enlarged
	CLASSIFICATION
	Kingdom:	Plantae
	Phylum:	Pinophyta
	Class:	Pinopsida
	Order:	Pinales
	Family:	Cupressaceae
	Genus:	Sequoia
	Species:	S. sempervirens
	*Genus:	Sequoiadendron
	*Species:	S. giganteum
	Sources: The California State Library U.S. National Arboretum U.S. Department of Agriculture Author: World Trade Press