Sequoia

sequoia (sĭkwoi`ə), name for the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and for the big tree, or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), both huge, coniferous evergreen trees of the bald cypress family, and for extinct related species. Sequoias probably originated over 100 million years ago. Once widespread in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, the trees were almost exterminated by the ice sheets of the glacial ages. Several species are known only by fossil remains; some such fossils have been found in the Petrified Forest in Arizona.

The two living species survive only in a narrow strip near the Pacific coast of the United States. The redwood occurs along the coast of California and S Oregon, often in easily lumbered, pure stands. Growing 100 to 385 ft (30–117 m) high, it is probably the tallest tree in the world; the tallest known tree is the redwood Hyperion (379.1 ft/115.5 m), in Redwood National Park. The redwood is able to obtain the abundant moisture needed to sustain its towering growth by capturing water from regularly occurring ocean fogs. The water then drips down from the leaves and branches to the soil, where it penetrates to be absorbed by the roots. The redwood's trunk is 20 to 25 ft (6.1–7.6 m) in diameter, and its needlelike leaves are usually bluish green. Some redwoods are believed to be over 2,000 years old. The big tree, 150 to 325 ft (46–99 m) tall and with a trunk 10 to 30 ft (3–9.1 m) in diameter, grows on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. It reaches an even greater age than the redwood; some individuals are believed to be 3,000 to 4,000 years old. The leaves are small, overlapping scales. Both trees have deeply grooved, reddish bark and soft, straight-grained, reddish heartwood whose resistance to decay makes it especially valuable for outdoor building purposes, e.g., for shingles, siding, and flumes. Although the sequoias are protected in Kings Canyon, Redwood, Sequoia, and Yosemite national parks, Giant Sequoia National Monument, and several California state parks, their existence elsewhere is threatened by exploitation.

China's deciduous dawn redwood tree (Metasequoia) is believed to be a related species and is perhaps an ancestor of the California redwood. This genus was named and described from fossil remains a few years before the few living specimens were discovered during World War II. Some thousand trees were subsequently found, and they were on the verge of extinction by lumbering. The fast-growing dawn redwoods are now propagated elsewhere. The East Indian and South American redwoods are in the unrelated brazilwood genus.

The sequoia is classified in the division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, order Coniferales, family Taxodiaceae.

Bibliography

See N. Taylor, The Ageless Relicts (1963); R. Silverberg, Vanishing Giants (1969).

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redwood

 or sequoia

Coniferous evergreen timber tree (Sequoia sempervirens) of the family Taxodiaceae, found in the fog belt of west-coastal North America. It grows in the coastal range from southwestern Oregon to central California at elevations up to 3,300 ft (1,000 m). The genus name commemorates the Cherokee Indian Sequoyah. The redwood is sometimes called coast redwood to distinguish it from the Sierra redwood (or big tree) and the Japanese redwood (or Japanese cedar). Redwoods are the tallest living trees, often exceeding 300 ft (90 m) in height; one has reached 368 ft (112 m). Typical trunk diameters are 10–20 ft (3–6 m) or more. The redwood tree takes 400–500 years to reach maturity; some are known to be more than 1,500 years old. As the tree ages, the lower limbs fall away, leaving a columnar trunk. Redwood timber has been used for furniture, shingles, fence posts, paneling, and fine wood objects. Today many of the remaining redwood stands are protected (see Redwood National Park; Sequoia National Park). See also dawn redwood.

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Sequoyah

 or Sequoya or Sequoia

(born c. 1760/1770, Taskigi, North Carolina colony—died August 1843, near San Fernando, Mex.) Creator of the Cherokee writing system. Sequoyah was probably the son of a British trader. Convinced that the secret of the white people's power was written language, Sequoyah set about developing a Cherokee system. Adapting letters from English, Greek, and Hebrew, he created a system of 86 symbols representing all the syllables of the Cherokee language. Most Cherokee quickly became literate as a result. Sequoyah never learned to speak, read, or write English.

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sequoia

either of two giant Californian coniferous trees, Sequoia sempervirens (redwood) or Sequoiadendron giganteum (formerly Sequoia gigantea) (big tree or giant sequoia): family Taxodiaceae

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Sequoia [si′kwȯi·yə]

(botany)

A genus of conifers having overlapping, scalelike evergreen leaves and vertical grooves in the trunk; the giant sequoia (Sequoia gigantea) is the largest and oldest of all living things.

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Sequoia 

a genus of coniferous evergreen trees of the family Taxodiaceae. The sole species is the redwood (S. sempervirens). The redwood and the giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are among the tallest trees in the world. The redwood reaches heights greater than 100 m and diameters of 8.5 m. It forms dense forests in the mountains of California and southern Oregon. Fossils of the tree have been found in Europe and Asia. The wood is used in construction, for example, for underwater structures. It is rarely cultivated; in the USSR it is grown in Western Transcaucasia and also on the southern coast of the Crimea.

REFERENCE

Derev’ia i kustarniki SSSR, vol. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1949.