Sequoia, the biggest tree in the world

Although they are more common in the United States of America, where they are native from, we can find these giant trees also in Portugal, mainly in national forests, gardens and several parks, usually below 310 meters of altitude.

Oddly enough, despite its size, pine cones produced by this tree (without losing the leaves in the cold seasons) are smaller than those of the common pine tree in Portugal and do not exceed three centimetres.

 Its soft, good quality and deterioration-resistant wood make it appealing for many industries using it in construction and furniture manufacturing. However, a fair deal of the tallest and largest trees was felled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for their valuable timber and are now onsidered endangered species by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

But sequoias manage to survive for centuries and even millennia in some cases. To give you an idea, sequoias can live for 600 to 2600 years.

Did you know that…

• The world’s tallest Sequoia sempervirens measures 115.72 m and can reach 130 m, corresponding to the maximum reachable height of a tree. It was discovered in 2006, it was nicknamed Hyperion and is about 1000 years old.

• The bark of a sequoia can be up to 30 cm thick, thus protecting it from moderate fires. This particular trait is also there in other plants, such as the cork oak (Quercus suber).

• This species grows in different parts of the world, such as Italy, England, South Africa, Mexico and several states of the United States of America.

• The amphibian Aneides vagrans can spend its entire life in a sequoia and can glide when jumping from a tree on the run from predators or to find more appropriate locations and is therefore nicknamed ‘paratrooper salamander’.