Mammoth tree - giant sequoia - sequoiadendron. What is a mammoth tree? The heat-loving guest of Alushta - sequoia

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One of the natural attractions of Alushta is the mammoth tree, the giant sequoia, unfortunately, not all tourists who come here on vacation visit it. Although this amazing tree It’s clearly worth standing under its crown, admiring the unusual branches and picking up an elegant pine cone.

One of the miracles that amazed the first European settlers in North America were pines of simply unimaginable size - giant sequoia (sequoia, mammoth tree). They reach a height of 120 meters, a girth of 10-15 meters, and live more than 2000 years. How much more is unknown; it is assumed that 4 and 5 thousand are not the limit.

Once upon a time, such pines were common in the territory of what is now Eurasia, but the climate changed, and they were replaced by other species. Fortunately, groves of relicts have been preserved in California, and not all of them were cut down by shameless pale-faced aliens. Some giants were lucky to be in natural parks, where they are studied and protected.

The heat-loving guest of Alushta - sequoia

From North America sequoiadendron seeds ended up in European botanical gardens, and from there they quickly began to spread throughout Eurasia. They are also present in Russia, but in small quantities - the climate of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus suited the heat-loving giants and. But here they feel great and the specimens planted in the 19th century have long outstripped all the surrounding trees.

One of the largest sequoiadendrons in Crimea grows in Alushta on the territory of a small vineyard owned by a local winery. If you are in the city, be sure to visit this huge pine tree, which already has several girths in diameter.

And that's why they named her specifically mammoth tree– branches extending from the trunk clearly resemble mammoth tusks:

It is interesting that the huge sequoia, which, it would seem, should grow long needles and huge cones to match its size, has needles of normal sizes, and the cones are even smaller than ordinary pine or spruce.

Also, these North American guests can be found in, in, on the slopes of Chatyr-Dag and in some other places in Crimea.

Sequoia evergreen (mammoth tree) – the only representative of the genus of woody plants from the Cypress family.

origin of name

Regarding the origin of the name, from the moment the name “sequoia” was assigned to this plant by the Austrian botanist S. Endlicher in 1847, to today, there is debate among experts about the etymology of this word. The researchers were divided into two opposing camps. The first believe that the name was given in honor of the leader of one of the Cherokee Indian tribes (the tribe lived in the area where this plant was first encountered and described) - George Guest (Sequoias), in order to perpetuate his name and contribution to the development of the Cherokee language, so how he invented the Cherokee alphabet and was the publisher of the first newspaper in this language (in 1826). Moreover, S. Endlicher’s biographers note his interest in linguistics and his tendency to name new plants in honor of famous personalities. The latter believe that the name “sequoia” has roots in Latin, where it means “to follow something,” explaining that the genus Sequoia was bred from the genus Taxodium and is its follower, also a follower of the vegetation of the forests of the past. Indeed, Sequoia is one of the ancient plants on the planet.

Modern research from 2012 to 2017 tends to favor the first version of the origin of the name Sequoia.

There is another name for this plant - mammoth tree. Really relevant appearance this relict plant. A tree of enormous height and thickness, with a bizarre trunk shape and branches reminiscent of a tusker.

Description

Sequoia is an evergreen tree, one of the tallest (up to 110 m) and long-lived (more than 2000 years) plants on the planet. The tall, straight trunk grows over 10 meters in diameter and has a very thick bark, sometimes more than 30 cm. In its natural habitat, the Sequoia is called a “mahogany tree” because when the bark is removed from the tree, it has a red-brown color, which It gets dark for a while. The conical crown is formed by long branches that grow almost horizontally or slightly at an angle. The leaves on the branches are flat and elongated, growing up to 2.5 cm, while older leaves are scale-like and shorter - from 0.5 to 1 cm. The roots do not penetrate deeply into the ground, but diverge widely with lateral shoots.

Sequoia has a feminine and masculinity(monoecious plant). Pollination occurs towards the end of winter, then after 8-9 months, ovoid cones up to 3 cm in size ripen. Inside each cone there are up to 7 seeds, each up to 4 mm.

Reproduction

Propagated by seeds and vegetatively by cuttings and grafting. It easily produces new shoots from an already cut tree - from a stump, or produces lateral shoots from the trunk, which is due to the presence of dormant buds.

Growing conditions

Research shows that the first sequoias appeared on earth more than 200 million years ago and occupied vast areas of the northern hemisphere. Then, with a change in climate on the planet, the plant gradually moved to more southern latitudes and was discovered and described on the Pacific coast. Sequoia loves vast spaces, warmth and a lot of moisture in the soil, which is why today it is distributed mainly on the American continent, in the state of California, near the ocean. The growing area is not very large, approximately 700 km along the coastline, going deep into the continent from 8 to 75 km. It grows both on the flat coast and rising to a height of up to 900 m above sea level. Sequoia loves ravines and gorges, especially those where there is often fog, but specimens growing above 300 meters above sea level do not tall and not so powerful. It is also introduced in latitudes where the climate is suitable for it, in particular in the Sochi Black Sea region there are comfortable conditions for the growth of this giant tree. Is thermophilic tropical plant, can tolerate short-term frosts down to -15ºС.

Application

Lightweight, easy to rot and durable wood allows you to use Sequoia as construction material, in furniture production, in the manufacture of sleepers and support masts. Since wood is practically odorless, it is widely used as a container board in the production of packaging for the food industry and tobacco production.

Selected species of Sequoia are used in landscape construction as dominants and in the art of bonsai.

Since this plant is considered a relict, scientists carefully monitor unique specimens and classify Sequoia as one of the most tall plants on the planet. Such specimens are given names and issued a passport. The tallest Mammoth tree on the planet is named Hyperion, reaches a height of 115.61 m and could have grown further if woodpeckers had not damaged extreme point growth.

At the beginning of the 21st century, American scientists conducted research that found that trees on Earth cannot overcome the growth height of 130 meters. This is due physical processes on the planet, such as friction and gravity. These processes occur between the bark of the wood and the liquid that comes out through holes in the bark.

Sem. taxodiaceae
Sequoiadendron giganteum

Giant Sequoiadendron or mammoth tree- giant evergreen conifer tree gigantic in size, its huge hanging branches resembling the tusks of a mammoth. The most tall tree Nikitsky Botanical Garden.

Its homeland is the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and warm California. And there, in my homeland, it’s huge evergreen tree reaches 80–100 m heights, since sequoiadendron is a very durable breed (can live up to 5 thousand years). In the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, the size of these giants is much more modest than in their homeland, but, nevertheless, the tallest tree in the Garden, reaching 38 meters in height, is the giant sequoiadendron, planted in the Upper Park in 1885. The trunk diameter of this mighty tree is about 2 meters.

This monumental tree has a regular, wide-pyramidal crown. Branching in young trees is very dense; in old trees the trunk is cleared of branches to a height of up to 50 m. The bark is red-brown, deep cracks, separated by plates. The needles are rough, hard, dark green With gray tint. The cones are small (5–8 cm), oblong-ovate. Ripen by the end of the 2nd year.

The breed is slow growing, especially in the first 10–15 years. Quite frost-resistant—tolerates short-term temperature drops down to 24–25°C. It loves loose, deep, fresh soils, but even here in Crimea it does well on calcareous soils.

The wood is soft and not as valuable as that of evergreen sequoia. However, it also does not burn in fire.

The dryness of the summer Crimean air “taught” the tree in especially hot years to partially shed its branches, trying to reduce the area of ​​​​moisture evaporation. Funnel-shaped depressions along the entire trunk are traces of such “undressing.”

Sequoiadendrons were discovered relatively recently, since the mountain slopes of the ridge were inaccessible and only in 1850 the English traveler Labb found the largest trees in the world. At first, these huge trees were called “California pines” or “mammoth trees”, and later they began to use the designation of the Indians: the word “sequoia” is simply the name of this tree in the Indian language, but the same name was given to one of the Indian leaders of the Iroquois tribe, the inventor of Indian writing .

In the Nikitsky Botanical Garden - since 1858.

The ancestors of mammoth trees lived on Earth 100 million years ago. Old specimens growing in protected groves of California are listed in the state registry by name: “ Thick tree", "Three Sisters", "Pioneer Hut", etc. In 1881, while laying a road in Yosemite Park, they were forced to make a tunnel in one of the sequoiadendron trees, through which buses could pass freely.

At the end of the last century, a lightning strike split the trunk of one tree at the base and it collapsed under its own weight. The weight of this trunk is more than 1000 tons. Stump diameter 23 m received the name "Father of the Forest". In 1910, a room was cut out inside the stump and a cozy restaurant was placed in it. Spiral staircase around the stump allows you to climb to the top of the head, where in the summer a quartet plays country tunes, 16 couples dance freely and there is enough space for 20 spectators around the perimeter.

When I. Ilf and E. Petrov, invited to America, visited Sequoia Park (occupies the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada), they wrote: “... we drove through an ancient dark forest, a fantastic forest, where the word “man” ceases to sound proudly, and only one word sounds proudly - “tree...”, I wanted to imagine that these trees grew peacefully when not only Columbus, but also Caesar, and Alexander the Great, and even the Egyptian king Tutankhamun were not in the world...”

Currently, in its homeland, California, there are no sequoiadendron trees older than 2 thousand years. But according to scientists’ forecasts, they can live up to 6–7 thousand years.

For those who saw a sequoia for the first time, it will seem like something magical, coming from a children's fairy tale. Scientific name - giant sequoiadendron (Sequoiadendron giganteum) or sequoia, but it also has another name - mammoth tree. It is truly insane in size, yes, and in appearance the branches of the tree are very similar to the tusks of a mammoth. The average diameter of a giant can reach up to 10 meters, and the height of some specimens exceeds 110 meters.

There seem to be enough redwood trees long history its existence on Earth, and similar forests of mammoth trees already existed during the time of dinosaurs. Then they grew all over the planet, and today they are natural habitat limited to a strip of the foggy coast of Northern California (hence the name - evergreen sequoia, or Californian - Sequoia sempervirens) and an area in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Average age giant sequoias It’s hard to say exactly, they suggest 3-4 thousand years, although some are 13 thousand years old!

After mammoth tree was discovered by Europeans, its name changed several times. Thus, the famous British botanist D. Lindley, who first spoke about this plant, called it Wellingtonia in honor of the Duke of Wellington, hero of the Battle of Waterloo. The Americans, in turn, proposed to name washingtonia(or Washington redwood), in honor of the first president D. Washington. But since the names Washingtonia and Wellingtonia had previously been assigned to other plants, in 1939 this species received the name Sequoiadendron.

Unusual facts:

A living redwood that has been felled will continue to try to grow using its shoots. If nothing prevents this, the shoots facing upward will turn into independent trees, and many groups of redwood trees got their start in this way. A “cathedral” or family of trees is precisely the trees that grew from the undead remains of the trunk of a fallen sequoia, and since they grew along the perimeter of the former stump, they form a circle. If you analyze the genetic material from the cells of these trees, you will find that it is the same in all of them and in the stump from which they grew.

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SEQUOIADENDRON GIANT(Sequoiadendron giganteum) also called the mammoth tree due to its gigantic size and external resemblance its huge hanging branches with mammoth tusks is undoubtedly its most famous representative.

Giant sequoiadendron occurs in separate small groves (about 30 of them) only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California (at an altitude of 1500-2000 m). The giant sequoiadendron was described in 1853. After the discovery of the Mammoth tree by Europeans, its name changed several times.


The giant sequoiadendron captured the imagination of the inhabitants of the Old World, and it was given names greatest people. Thus, the famous English botanist D. Lindley, who first described this plant, calls it Wellingtonia in honor of the Englishman Duke of Wellington, hero of the Battle of Waterloo.

The Americans, in turn, proposed the name Washingtonia (or Washington sequoia), in honor of the first US President D. Washington. But since the names Washingtonia and Wellingtonia had already been previously assigned to other plants, in 1939 this genus received the name Sequoiadendron.

The giant sequoiadendron is an unusually majestic and monumental tree, reaching a height of 80-100 m, with a trunk up to 10 m in diameter, and is distinguished by its amazing longevity. The question of the maximum age of sequoiadendron still remains unresolved: they call it 3 and 4 thousand years.
Because of their durable, rot-resistant wood, sequoiadendrons in their homeland have been rapaciously exterminated since the time of the first explorers and gold seekers. The remaining trees to date, and there are only about 500 of them, have been declared protected.

The largest sequoiadendrons bear proper names: “Father of the Forests”, “General Sherman”, “General Grant” and others. The first of them, now no longer existing, reached, as is clear from its descriptions, a height of 135 m with a trunk diameter at the base of 12 m.


It is estimated that the Sequoiadendron, known as General Sherman, contains about 1500 m3 of wood, with a height of 83 m and a trunk diameter at the base of the tree of 11 m.

To transport it would require a train of 20-25 wagons. An orchestra and three dozen dancers can easily fit on the cut of another tree. Tunnels made in the lower parts of trunks are also known (for example, such a tunnel has existed in Yosemite Park since 1881). Cars pass through it freely.


Sequoiadendron as ornamental plant bred in many countries around the world. It is especially good at the age of 80-100 years with a dark green, regularly pyramidal crown starting from the ground and a translucent reddish trunk. With age, the correctness of the crown is disrupted, the trunk becomes bare and thickens, and the tree takes on a monumental appearance.


Having been brought to Europe back in 1853, sequoiadendron has taken root well in the parks and gardens of its southwestern part. Its seeds came to our country in 1858. The first trees were planted in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden, then in Black Sea coast Caucasus and Central Asia.


And although they grow slower under these conditions than in their homeland, they nevertheless reach quite impressive sizes. Thus, seventy-year-old specimens grow to a height of 30 m or more (with a diameter of over 1 m). Unlike sequoia (“redwood”), Sequoiadendron is also called “Sierra redwood.”
(c) http://www.floranimal.ru/pages/flora/s/5581.html

Because of their durable, rot-resistant wood, sequoiadendrons in their homeland have been rapaciously exterminated since the time of the first explorers and gold seekers.


The remaining trees to date, and there are only about 500 of them, have been declared protected. The largest sequoiadendrons have their own names: “Father of Forests”, “General Sherman”, “General Grant” and others.

The first of them, now defunct, reached, as is clear from its descriptions, a height of 135 m with a trunk diameter at the base of 12 m. It is estimated that the Sequoiadendron, known as "General Sherman", contains about 1500 m3 of wood, with height 83 m and trunk diameter at the base of the tree equal to 11 m. To transport it would require a train of 20-25 cars.

John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt in the National Park

Sequoia- the second oldest national park in the United States. It was established on September 25, 1890 to protect the redwoods in the Giant Forest, including the General Sherman Tree, currently the largest tree in the world. Redwoods are also native to Mineral King Valley and Mt. Whitney - the most high mountains USA outside of Alaska.

A small portion of what is now Kings Canyon National Park was called General Grant National Park in 1890. In 1940, the park's boundaries expanded significantly to include the South Fork of the Kings River and more than 456,000 acres of wilderness.


The total size of the national park, including Sequoia Park, now reaches just under 900 thousand acres.

People appeared in the forests of giant seiquoias soon after the end civil war. The General Grant Tree was discovered in 1862 by Joseph Hardin Thomas, and its name was coined in 1867 by a certain Lucretia Baker.

Five years later, on March 1, 1872, Ulysses Simpson Grant, the eighteenth President of the United States, approved legislation establishing Yellowstone as the world's first national park. The grove of giant (mammoth) seiquois named after Grant, as well as Yosemite Park, were approved by the same law.

From the history of the park


Captain Charles Young, Military Chief, National Park Sequoia, 1903
by Wm. C. Tweed


The new military leader arrived in Sequoia National Park in the summer of 1903 and immediately encountered many difficulties. Born in Kentucky during the Civil War, Charles Young was black, which was not welcomed in those parts.


He was the first African American to graduate high school for whites in Ripley, Ohio, and took part in a serious competition, as a result of which he was able to enter the famous Military school at West Point in 1884.


He was courageous and strong man and became the third black person to be educated at this prestigious educational institution. The conditions of this training were so harsh that he later wrote that the most great challenge in his life.


In May 1903, National Park Sequoia was already thirteen years old, but he was still underdeveloped and difficult to reach. Since 1891, the management and development of the park was placed under the responsibility of the US Army, but due to lack of funding by Congress, almost nothing was done and much was stolen. The main thing is that there were no roads, the construction of which began only in 1900. But the work was carried out so slowly that in three years of work only 5 miles were laid.


Young immediately began to build new roads and widen old ones that even small wagons could not travel on. Soon the road ran to Moro Rock.
In 1904, Young was sent as a military attaché to Haiti. He later served in the same capacity in Liberia.
Young took part in the Expedition to Mexico in 1916. He died in 1923 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full honors.


Although Colonel Charles Young served in the Park for only one working season, his efforts were not forgotten. He is remembered for his energy, tenacity and dignity. Expensive ones, built under his leadership, improved only a little, still serve today.

Walter Fry: Famous Man
Malinee Crapsey
(This article first appeared in The Sequoia Bark magazine in the summer of 1994)


"When I first met Judge Frye, under his own grand old trees, I knew I had met a rare man..."


In 1888, Walter Fry first encountered giant sequoias as a lumberjack and was shocked. Having spent more than five days with a team of lumberjacks cutting down and felling a single tree, he counted the growth layers on the trunk of the fallen giant.

He had to count several days and the answer was surprising: 3266 rings, that is, 3266 years of life.

Two years later, local residents petitioned the US government to place the great seiquois under government protection. The third signature on the petition was that of Walter Frye.

President Grant

The Park Authority moved the Fry family over the course of several years from the San Joaquin Valley to Trois-Rivieres. Fry served as traffic controller, and in 1905 he became park ranger. By 1910, Fry had become chief of the Rangers, managing parks for military leadership.
In 1914, the Army finally relinquished control of the Park and Fpay was appointed its official civilian leader.

Mr. Fry's contribution to the development and improvement of the Park was so significant that in 1994 the Lodgepole Nature Center was named after him.

Giant Sequoia

In the world sequoias grow in natural conditions only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, most often at elevations between 5,000 and 7,000 feet.


There are no more than 75 groves in total.
General Sherman's tree is between 2300 and 2700 years old. Its largest branch is almost seven feet in diameter.

Sequoias grow from seeds so small and light that they resemble oat flakes.

Take a closer look - there are tiny little people on the branches of the giant.

Translated independently from the page http://www.sequoia.national-park.com/info.htm#tree

Ten biggest giants:

Tree.................................... .......Location..... .........Height(ft) Circum(ft)
1. General Sherman.............Giant Forest........274.9........102.6
2. Washington .....................Giant Forest........254.7.......101.1
3. General Grant ....................Grant Grove ........268.1.......107.6
4. President ...........................Giant Forest .......240.9......... 93.0
5. Lincoln .....................Giant Forest .......255.8..... ....98.3
6. Stagg ...................................Alder Creek ........243.0. .......109.0
7. Genesis.........................Mountain Home..257.1......85.3
8. Boole..................................Conver se Basin..268.8....... .113.0
9. Ishi...................................Gi ant Kennedy.....248.1 .......105.1
10. Franklin.........................Giant Forest........223.8........ 94.8

From pre-park history:

To this day, there is debate among historians as to who was the first European to see Yosemite Valley. In the fall of 1833, Joseph Reddeford Walker may have been the first to see the valley - in his subsequent entries, he said that he led a group of hunters who crossed the Sierra Nevada and came close to the edge of the valley, which went down "more than a mile." His party was also the first to enter the Tuolomni Sequoiadendron grove, thus becoming the first non-natives to see these giant trees.

The part of the Sierra Nevada where the park is located for a long time was considered the border of settlements of Europeans, traders, hunters and travelers. However, this status changed in 1848 with the discovery of gold deposits at the foot of the mountains in the west. From this point on, trading activity in this territory increased sharply, resulting in the California Gold Rush. The newcomers began to destroy Natural resources, at the expense of which the Indian tribes lived.


The first reliably known white man to see the valley should be considered William P. Abrams, who on October 18, 1849 with his detachment carefully described some landmarks of the valley, but it is not known for sure whether he or anyone from his detachment entered the this land. However, there is no doubt that in 1850 Joseph Screech actually descended into the Hetch Hetchy Valley and, moreover, settled here.

The first systematic study of the park was carried out in 1855 by the team of Allexey W. Von Schmidt as part of the state program land survey "Public Land Survey System".

Mariposa Wars

Before the first Europeans appeared in this territory, the Sierra Miwok and Paiute Indian tribes lived here. By the time the first settlers arrived here, a group of Indians called themselves the Ahwahnechee lived in the Yosemite Valley.


As a result of the sharp increase in the flow of immigrants during the gold rush, armed conflicts began to arise with local tribes. To put an end to the constant skirmishes, in 1851, government troops were sent to the valley - the Mariposa Battalion under the command of Major James Savage with the aim of pursuing about 200 Avanichi Indians led by Chief Tenaya. In particular, the doctor Lafayette Bunnell was attached to the detachment, who later colorfully described his impressions of what he saw in the book “The Discovery of the Yosemite”. Bunnell is also credited with naming the valley after speaking with Chief Tenaya.


Bunnell wrote in his book that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Pai-Ute colony of the Ah-wah-ne tribe. The neighboring Sierra Miwok Indians (like most of the white inhabitants who settled here) described the Avanichi Indians as warlike tribe, with whom they had constant territorial disputes, the name of this tribe "yohhe'meti" literally meant "they are killers." Correspondence and notes written by the battalion's soldiers helped popularize the valley and its surrounding area.

Tenaya and the remnants of Avanichi were captured and their settlement burned. The tribe was forcibly transferred to a reservation near Fresno, California. Some were subsequently allowed to return to the valley, but after eight miners were attacked in 1852, they fled to the neighboring Mono tribe, who broke their hospitality and killed them.
(c) Weinheim