Tree of the week: The tallest

Good morning, and Happy Easter in advance. Today, the third in Pieter Severynen's inspirational three-part essay about California's superlative trees -- he's told us about the oldest, the biggest, and now, the tallest. Enjoy.

The Coast Redwood – Sequoia sempervirens

"The Coast redwoods thrive in the thickest part of California’s fog belt, where each summer day cool fog moves onto land from the ocean. In this 5- to 45-mile-wide strip of land, stretching 470 miles from Central California north to southern Oregon, the fog condenses on the branches and drips down onto the ground, supplying from 15% to almost half the water needs of these trees. Grouped in cathedral-like groves, each tree hosts many guests: some leaves fall onto branches below, decompose there into ‘canopy soil’, which supports dozens of epiphytic ferns high up in the air, accompanied by beetles, earthworms, millipedes and salamanders; herons, spotted owls, murrelets and other birds love to nest high in the canopy. The trees love company: root systems are extensive but shallow, and once the outer individuals of a cluster of trees have been cut down, strong winds may topple the rest. New trees sprout from cut stumps; many second-growth forests exist.

From a very fast 3-5’ a year initially, the trees gradually slow down, but they just don’t stop. They can attain 2,200 years of age and 23’ diameter at the base. ‘Hyperion’, the currently tallest tree, is located in the Redwood National Park; discovered and measured in 2006, it stands 379.1 ft. tall. It has several neighbors in the 350’ range. (The theoretical physical limit to tree growth is estimated to be 400-425’).

Redwoods grow well in Southern California: the more we approximate their native habitat (moist canyons, nearby stream, enough water), the better they will do. The tree grows into a beautiful symmetrical pyramid, with branches coming horizontally out of the trunk, and then curving up. Inch-long leaves are medium green on top, grayish green below; they grow in one plane, giving the branchlets a feathery look. Thick, fibrous red-brown bark on the trunk is fire resistant. Round brown cones are only 1-1 1/2” long."

Thanks, Pieter.
E-mail Pieter: plseve@earthlink.net
Comments? Thoughts?
Photo credit: Courtesy of the L.A. County Arboretum

Comments

[Keith - LetItSink.blogspot.com]

I like trees, but here is a little more interesting news:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=
20601109&sid=a_IN0W3.lFV0&refer=home#

As far as I can tell, nobody else picked up on this story. There is now a 17 month supply of homes in California. This should have been front page news. Did I miss it? I could not find it anywhere else.

The other unreported news item of late is the housing vacancy rate. Again nobody is reporting that there are over 2 million empty housing units in the country. These are unused and unneeded homes.

If anyone still cares about rerporting real estate stories other than the first person horror stories that are choking the news, these stories might interest somebody.

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

I think if we can appreciate trees, then we can take care of trees.

And if we can take care of trees, we can appreciate and take care of nature.

And from there, we will realize that we don't always need to own a big house or to speculate on houses.

Then, well, you know the rest of the story.

But it starts with appreciating trees or anything small or you haven't noticed before - that's just one man's humble opinion.

Peter, what is the smallest tree in the world? By that, i mean natually occurring, not Bonsai trees, for example.

[dilbert dogbert]

As I walk around my section of old Palo Alto (Tall Tree) I see redwoods that were planted sometime in the 1920s within 10 feet of the house. The tree is lifting the foundation and pushing on the roof. PA has a historic tree regulation that makes it hard to cut these trees down and even if allowed would cost mucho pesos (USD). If you use redwoods in your planting make sure that you have a very large lot, say beyond 1 acre in size, and put it near your lot line. If you want to start a fight with your neighbors use redwoods as a hedge to block their view lines.
We ride our horses in the local parks and have seen what happens in wet winters when several of these big trees come down. Awesome!!!
Have Fun!

[sunsetbeachguy]

I have a different take from Mylessthanprimebeef's post.

Having moved from the business cycle to the bubble cycle in our economics and the inherent zero sum game nature of bubble episodes, virtually assures that humanity won't take care of other humans much less nature.

If we could take care of humanity without these stupid bubbles, maybe we would have a shot at taking care of nature or at least assuming a fittingest (as opposed to destructive) role in the ecosystem.

[Uncle Billy]

Here's one definition for a tree:

"A tree is a woody plant with a single erect perennial trunk at least 3 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH). "

Here's one (common) choice for world's smallest tree:

"Did you know that the smallest tree in the world is the Dwarf Willow and you’ll find it in Greenland. It grows in tundra and rocky moorland and typically grows to only 1-6 cm / 2 inches in height! It is the most common of a group of tiny creeping willows and is adapted to survive in harsh arctic and sub-arctic environments including both sides of the North Atlantic, Arctic northwest Asia, northern Europe and eastern Canada, and further south to the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Rila in Europe and the northern Appalachian Mountains in New York.

So if you ever find yourself lost in some woods in Greenland, all you have to do is stand up!"

So now, MLTPB, hold those two diametrically opposed ideas in your head until you burst into oneness in a flash of Buddhist rapture

Housing? What the heck has that to do with trees?

[Uncle Billy]

Damn world wide web of confusion. At the end of my last post I typed "emoticon with tongue hanging out" to be clever, which didn't publish because the system doesn't publish stuff inside "above the comma" and "above the period" keys.

So, it didn't come out right. ;)

Can't we come up with better names than "above the comma"?

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Sunsetbeachguy, you're right. I wrote only about trees to bring some balance to the discussion; but yes, we don't want to forget other humans.

UncleBilly, like Whitman, I can handle contradictions. It was him who, when caught making opposing statemens, said, 'I am big! I am multitude.' Ever since, politicians have held him in the highest regard. Oh, and thanks for the smallest tree in the world. I wonder what they look like? I googled midget tree and came up with a legend about midget tree as a tree where a midget goes to die and if you stab a midget tree, a midget born of that tree dies.

Happy Easter! BTW, you single men, it's spring and love is in the air, you better go chase those eggs, especially around Easter!