Wolfman wrote:I studied dendrology at the University of Maine around 1958, and although it seems that the tree has been reclassified (I knew it as Sequoia gigantea) I did recall that its range was located in the Sierras.
Y'know, I've long had a minor-league passion for the beautiful sequoia. I've actually done some not-particularly-extensive study on them. And I believe the botanist have been debating the "native range" of them for 100 years or more.
Interesting subject, actually.
The Giant Sequoia is thought to be by far the predominate tree over much of the planet 200 million years ago. But as climatic conditions changed and whatnot, they disappeared from most of its habitat. Fairly suddenly (by earth-age standards), they were no longer "the man" over Europe and North America, and they hung on through a few suitable spots along the West Coast.
It's known that there's only decent groves in select spots in the Sierra. BUT... I know I've been told that there's been very small smatterings, often individual trees, that were interspersed through the mountains along the West Coast. I KNOW I've been told (for what that's worth... very little), that in the days of the settlers, that they'd find the occasional Giant Sequoia up through the Siskiyous and through Southern Oregon, possibly as far north as Roseburg (which is about 70 miles south of Eugene). Once you go any farther north from there, the soil composition and climate change enough that any of those ancient stock couldn't thrive, and became extinct along with all of the other sequoias around the world.
I won't say yes or no to either proposition, but considering the similar climates and soils and whatsuch (hell, us Native Snobs refer to anything south of Roseburg as "Northern California, even though it's 150 miles from there), I'd say it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility... but I ain't no botanist.
But as an ornamental (which as mentioned, became quite the rage as disgruntled gold rushers came north to kill beavers and whatnot), the Giant Sequoia absolutely thrives around here. And with the early examples being planted in this area 150 years ago, you do the math on the type of beasts that might be present. Other parts of the world haven't been nearly as successfulgrowing sequoias as an ornamental, because they end up being prone to the indiginous diseases, the sequoia-killers being not present on the West Coast(same issue they had trying to grow native European grape vines in California during the 1800's -- nearly killed off all of the native varietals in the process). Although, around here, the sequoias definitely do not like the ultra-dry summers. Matter of fact, before it started raining a little a couplefew weeks ago, the backyard beast was getting fairly unhappy, as it often does in late summer. The inner needles/leave thingies start to brown, particularly in the upper reaches. An arborist actually mentioned that letting that happen was bad, and that can be an invitation to disease in sequoias. So it gets some serious gallonage dumped at the base starting in late August/early September.
In my last sequoia post, I mentioned "the following picture"... and didn't post the pic. It was this one --
Neither the tree nor the closeup I was looking for, but you can see some golfers in the lower right, for a little perspective. The other trees around it are no small fry. But they've grown some serious monsters at Eastmoreland. Fairly low-lying spot, plus it gets watered, being a golf course. They seem to really thrive there. There's some extremely old, maginificent examples of some sequoias on the grounds of my county courthouse(which I generally try to avoid), but can't find a picture of them.
As far as the study of trees goes, the Giant Sequoia is a fascinating one -- used to provide shade for dinosaurs all over the world, and somehow managed to escape extinction by hanging on to its few available niches.
And did I mention that while the Backyard Unit won't make any record books for its size, it still may be of interest to the folks at the Guinness Book, since sitting at its base
may be the largest pile of racoon feces that mankind has ever seen. The filthy little bastards climb up and down one side of it, and shit down the other... going into the lower branches is actually kinda gross.
Did I mention the coonshit pile is HUUUUUGE? That rotting pile of nasty must be about 2.5 feet high, and 5 feet across. Gnarly.
