Which plant is called the tree giant mammoth tree. Mammoth tree - giant sequoia - sequoiadendron. Giant sequoiadendron: description

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 botanist from Austria S. Endlicher gave the name "sequoia" to this plant in 1847, to the present day, there are disputes between specialists 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 met and described) - George Gest (Sequoias), in order to perpetuate his name and contribution to the development of the Cherokee language, so how exactly he invented the Cherokee alphabet and was the publisher of the first newspaper in this language (in 1826). Moreover, the biographers of S. Endlicher note his interest in linguistics and his tendency to give names to new plants in honor of famous personalities. The second believe that the name "sequoia" has roots in Latin, where it means "follow something", explaining that the Sequoia genus was derived 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 oldest plants on the planet.

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

There is another name for this plant - mammoth tree. Really matches the appearance of this relic plant. A huge tree in height and thickness, with a bizarre trunk shape, with branches resembling bivnimamont.

Description

Sequoia is an evergreen tree, one of the tallest (up to 110 m) and long-lived (over 2000 years) plants on the planet. The tall, straight trunk grows over 10 meters in diameter and has a very thick bark, sometimes over 30 cm. gets dark for a while. The conical crown is formed by long branches that grow almost horizontally or slightly inclined. On the branches, the leaves are flat and elongated in shape, grow up to 2.5 cm, while the older leaves are scaly and shorter - from 0.5 to 1 cm. The roots do not penetrate deeply into the ground, but diverge widely with lateral processes.

Sequoia has a feminine and masculine beginning (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 - cuttings and grafting. Easily gives new shoots from an already sawn tree - from a stump, or gives lateral shoots from the trunk, due to the presence of dormant buds.

growing conditions

Studies show that the first redwoods appeared on earth more than 200 million years ago and occupied vast areas of the northern hemisphere. Then, with the change of climate on the planet, the plant gradually moved to more southern latitudes and was discovered and described on the Pacific coast. Sequoia is very fond of vast spaces, warmth and a lot of moisture in the soil, therefore today it is distributed mainly on the American continent, in the state of California, not far from the ocean. The habitat is not very large, about 700 km along the coastline, deepening 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 are not tall and not so powerful. It is also introduced in latitudes where the climate suits it, in particular, in the Sochi Black Sea region, there are comfortable conditions for the growth of this giant tree. It is a heat-loving tropical plant, can tolerate short-term frosts down to -15ºС.

Application

Light, slightly rotting and durable wood allows Sequoia to be used as a building material, in furniture production, in the manufacture of sleepers and support masts. Since the wood is practically odorless, it is widely used as a tare board in the production of packaging for the food industry and tobacco production.

Breeding species of Sequoia are used in landscape construction as dominants, in the art of bonsai.

Since this plant is considered a relic, scientists carefully track unique specimens and classify the Sequoia as one of the tallest plants on the planet. Such copies 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 grow further if woodpeckers had not damaged the extreme point of growth.

At the beginning of the 21st century, American scientists conducted research, as a result of which it was found that trees on Earth cannot overcome the growth height of 130 meters. This is due to physical processes on the planet, such as friction and gravity. These processes take place between the bark of the wood and the liquid that escapes through holes in the bark.

Sem. taxodiaceae
Sequoiadendron giganteum

Sequoiadendron giant or mammoth tree- a gigantic evergreen coniferous tree of gigantic size, which has an outward resemblance to its huge hanging branches with mammoth tusks. The tallest tree in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden.

His homeland is the Western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and warm California. And there, at home, this huge evergreen tree reaches 80-100 m height, since the sequoiadendron is a very durable breed (it 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 precisely the giant sequoiadendron, planted on the territory of the Upper Park in 1885. The diameter of the trunk 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, in deep cracks, separated by plates. The needles are rough, hard, dark green with a gray tint. Cones are small (5–8 cm), oblong-ovate. Ripens 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 to - 24–25°C. He likes loose, deep, fresh soils, but even here, in the Crimea, he feels good on calcareous soils.

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

The dryness of the Crimean summer 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 did the English traveler Lubb find 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 language of the Indians, but one of the Indian leaders of the Iroquois tribe, the inventor of Indian writing, had the same name .

In the Nikitsky Botanical Garden - since 1858.

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

At the end of the last century, a lightning strike split the trunk of a 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 was named "Father of the Forest". In 1910, a room was cut out inside the stump and a cozy restaurant was placed in it. A spiral staircase around the stump allows you to climb to the top, where in the summer a quartet plays country melodies, 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 were driving through an ancient gloomy forest, a fantastic forest where the word “man” ceases to sound proud, 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 their homeland, in California, there are no sequoiadendron trees older than 2 thousand years. But according to scientists, they can live up to 6-7 thousand years.

One of the highest (up to 135 m) trees on the planet is the sequoia, or mammoth tree. In height, it is second only to eucalyptus.[ ...]

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 the names of the greatest people are assigned to it. So, the famous English botanist D. L and n d-l, who first described this plant, calls it wellingtonia in honor of the English Duke of Wellington, the hero of the Battle of Waterloo. The Americans, in turn, proposed the name Washington (or Washington Sequoia), in honor of the first US President D. Washington, who led the liberation movement against the British. But since the names washingtonia and wellingtonia had already been previously assigned to other plants, in 1939 this genus was named se-voyadepdron.[ ...]

Modern Taxodiaceae include a number of interesting plants. Among the first should be called sequoiadendron or mammoth tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) - one of the largest and longest-lived plants in the world. Yielding in height only to the evergreen sequoia and one of the eucalyptus species, in particular the willow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus salicifolia) from Australia, the sequoiadendron undoubtedly exceeds their trunk thickness.[ ...]

The climate became more humid, and all the land was overgrown with abundant vegetation. The forerunners of today's cypresses, pines and mammoth trees appeared in the forests.[ ...]

The most famous representative of the taxodia is undoubtedly the famous giant sequoiadendron (Sequoiadendron gigan-teum), also called the mammoth tree because of the gigantic size and resemblance of its huge hanging branches to mammoth tusks. In terms of size and anatomical and morphological features, the evergreen sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens) is close to it. Both of these plants were widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere at the end of the Cretaceous and in the Tertiary period. The remains of forests with their participation, which once occupied vast areas, are now preserved only in a limited area of ​​western North America. The evergreen sequoia still forms fairly extensive forest areas on a narrow strip of the Pacific coast from Southwestern Oregon to the Santa JIy ridge in California (at an altitude of 600-900 m). The giant sequoiadendron is found 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).[ ...]

If eucalyptus trees are distinguished by considerable plasticity in adapting to soil conditions, then one can already expect in advance a great diversity in the development of eucalyptus stands and tree sizes. Indeed, on the one hand, we meet eucalyptus trees, surpassing in their height all other tree species in the world, even sequoia and mammoth tree. On the other hand, in the mountains, on the border of forest vegetation and on poor soils, eucalyptus trees begin to decrease sharply in size and are already clumsy, relatively stunted trees.[ ...]

However, in semicarpic plants, the transition to the formation of reproductive organs does not directly accelerate the aging process, and they have the ability to continue their own! growth, and the duration of the stages of reproduction and old age is sometimes so long that plants live up to 2000 years (cypresses, yews and cedars) and even up to 5000 years (mammoth trees).[ ...]

Ontogeny, or individual development, of plants begins from the moment of fertilization of the ovum or the appearance of a rudimentary night in the reproductive organs and tissues of the mother plant and ends with the death of the plant. Thus, ontogenesis is a complete life cycle of a plant, includes all its life processes and manifestations, and continues, depending on the type of plant, from 5-6 years in miniature ephemera to 3-5 thousand years in the giants of the plant kingdom - mammoth trees, cedars and other species.[ ...]

Ontogenesis (from Greek - being and origin) - the individual development of an organism from the moment of formation to the natural completion of its life cycle (until death or cessation of existence in its former capacity). The term was introduced by E. Haeckel in 1866. Ontogeny is the process of deployment and implementation of hereditary information embedded in germ cells. It in plants as a whole is more dependent on environmental conditions than in animals. In representatives of different types of living organisms, the duration of ontogeny is not the same (Table 21). The intervals of life expectancy fluctuate especially sharply in plants, in particular, long-livers (age up to 4,000-5,000 years) are baobab, dragon tree, mammoth tree (sequoia), California bristlecone pine, etc. Some arctic plants, despite extreme conditions, live relatively long: the limiting age of a dwarf birch is 80 years, polar willow - 200 years, blueberries - 93 years, etc.

In our article, we want to talk about what kind of miracle is this - a mammoth tree? For those who see it for the first time, it seems that it is magical, as if from some fairy tale. But in fact, this huge plant is nothing more than a giant sequoiadendron.

From the history…

The mammoth tree is gigantic, outwardly its branches resemble real ones. Small plants reach a height of ten meters, and some specimens grow up to 110 meters. Apparently, the sequoia has a rather long history, because forests of such trees have existed since the time of the dinosaurs. In those distant times, they were distributed throughout the planet. Now, under natural conditions, they grow only in northern California and in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

It is very difficult to determine the average age of giant plants, it is assumed that they are at least 3-4 thousand years old, although the age of some specimens reaches 13 thousand years.

After the discovery of the mammoth tree by Europeans, it changed its name several times. The British botanist Lindley named the plant Wellingtonia (in honor of the Duke of Wellington), and the Americans suggested naming the plant Washingtonia (in honor of President Washington). But these names had already been previously assigned to other plants, so in 1939 the tree began to be called sequoiadendron.

Giant sequoiadendron: description

Sequoiadendron belongs to the genus of evergreen coniferous plants of the Cypress family. The first mention of such a plant among Europeans dates back to 1833. Currently, the mammoth tree is the tallest in the world. It is also called "red tree". The plant has bluish-green needles and red-brown bark, which is more than 60 centimeters thick, making the tree resistant to frost. The height of the sequoiadendron is more than a hundred meters, and the diameter of the trunk at the base is 10 meters. The approximate weight of such a giant is at least two thousand tons. Such an evergreen plant grows at an altitude of up to 750 meters above sea level. Along the Pacific Ocean on the coast of California.

Giant-sized sequoias are considered the most massive trees in nature, as well as the largest living organisms. Among them there are about 50 trees over 105 meters high. today is about 3500 years old. An interesting fact is that these giants have their own ecosystems on the trunks. Lichens and other small plants, animals and organisms perfectly live here.

At a young age, mammoth trees grow very quickly (10-20 centimeters per year). They have a cone-shaped, dense crown, later it becomes more prostrate and highly raised. With age, the branches are located only on top of the trunk. Young shoots are greenish-brown.

In an adult plant, the red-brown bark is very thick and soft, it is separated from the trunk by fibers. The needles remain on the shoots for up to four years. The plant blooms in April-May.

Features of the mammoth tree

The mammoth tree has a very valuable wood, which is most highly valued among woods with a red heartwood and white sapwood (or pale yellow). Sequoia bark is incredibly thick, red in color with deep furrows on the surface, it reliably protects the plant from external factors.

The durable wood of the giants does not rot, which is why trees in their homeland began to be exterminated from the time of gold miners and the first explorers. To this day, no more than 500 specimens have survived, which are under protection and are considered reserved.

Sequoiadendron is considered one of the longest-lived on Earth. It can grow over 2000 years. The tree reaches a mature age at 400-500 years.

Where does sequoia grow?

If we talk about where the mammoth tree grows, then it is worth noting that in the Cretaceous period such evergreens were widespread throughout the northern hemisphere. But now insignificant remnants of forests have been preserved only in a limited area of ​​North America. The trees grow in a narrow strip along the Pacific coast. The length of this strip is no more than 720 kilometers. And it is located at an altitude of 600-900 meters above sea level. Sequoia (photos are given in the article) is in dire need of a humid climate, and therefore the maximum distance it can move from the coast is 48 kilometers, remaining in the zone of influence of humid sea air. In other conditions, it simply cannot exist.

Mammoth tree: interesting facts

The living fallen does not die, but continues to grow, using its shoots for this. If no one or nothing interferes with them, then after a while they will turn into independent trees. Most of the groups of these plants were formed in this simple way. Each such family of trees is formed from the undead remains of an ancestor. As a rule, young plants grow around an old stump, forming a circle. If we analyze the genetic material of the mini-grove, we can determine that it is the same for both the stump and the entire growth.

The mammoth giant has one feature - during hot periods it sheds not only needles, but also entire branches. In such an interesting way, he reacts to the heat.

The largest trees that have survived to this day have their own names. So, there is "General Sherman", "Father of the Forests", "General Grant" and others. The mammoth tree “Father of the Forests” no longer exists, but its description has been preserved, from which it is known that the plant reached 135 meters in height, and the diameter of the trunk at the base was 12 meters.

But the sequoia (photo is given in the article) "General Sherman" has a height of about 83 meters. It is estimated that the plant has 1500 cubic meters of fine wood, and the girth of the trunk at the base has a diameter of 11 meters. To transport such a tree, a train of 25 wagons would be required.

Where can you see a sequoia?

To see what a mammoth tree looks like, you do not need to fly to another continent, just visit in the Crimea (on the South Coast). Two grow on curtains 9 and 7 of the Upper Park of the Arboretum. One of them reaches 42.5 meters in height, and the girth of the trunk is 610 centimeters. Both plants were planted as early as 1886, and the seeds of future seedlings were obtained in 1881. It's hard to imagine, but today the trees are 136 years old.

Wood

As we already mentioned, sequoia has excellent wood and at the same time grows quite quickly. Therefore, it is currently grown in forestry. Light, durable wood that does not rot is widely used as a building and joinery material. Furniture, telegraph poles, sleepers, tiles, paper are made from it. The complete absence of smell makes it possible to use it in the food and tobacco industries. Boxes and boxes for tobacco and cigars, barrels for honey are made from it.

In addition, sequoia is also used as an ornamental plant, planting in gardens, parks and reserves. It has taken root in many countries of the world, including in the south-west of Europe, where the plant was introduced in the middle of the 19th century.

Instead of an afterword

The mammoth tree is a stunning and majestic plant that has come down to us from time immemorial. Next to such giants, a person seems an incredibly small creature, but at the same time, it was human influence that had a detrimental effect on the number of these incredible plants. Unfortunately, now it is not possible to restore the former number of mammoth tree plantations, the task of the current generation is to preserve the remaining historical plants and prevent their death.

To the question What is a mammoth tree? given by the author Olesya the best answer is
The name of the species was due to the gigantic size and external resemblance of its huge hanging branches to mammoth tusks. This species was widespread in the northern hemisphere at the end of the Cretaceous and in the Tertiary, now only about 30 groves have survived, located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California at an altitude of 1500-2000 m above sea level.
Mature trees reach a height of up to 100 meters with a trunk diameter of 10-12 m. The oldest, at the moment, Giant Sequoia has an age of 3200 years, established by annual rings.
The name of the giant sequoiadendron, described in 1853, has changed several times due to the desire to give the tree the name of one of the great people of that time. The largest sequoiadendrons have their own names: "Father of the Forests", "General Sherman", "General Grant" and others.
Sequoiadendron as an ornamental plant is bred in many countries of the world: the southwestern part of Europe, where it was introduced back in the middle of the 19th century, as well as in the Southern Crimea, Central Asia, on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, in Transcarpathia.
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GIANTS
For those who see the sequoia for the first time, it seems like something that came from a fairy tale. The average diameter of a tree is two and a half meters, and sometimes up to six meters, and the height of some trees exceeds 110 meters. Such a tree would be taller than the Statue of Liberty from the base of the pedestal to the top of the torch. In the volume of the trunk, an intercity bus is freely placed. Sequoia is the largest living organism on Earth. A typical redwood forest contains more biomass per unit area than any other area on the globe, including the Amazon rainforest.

Answer from Natushka[guru]
Sequoia dendron, or mammoth tree, is up to 100 meters high with a trunk diameter of up to 10 m. This is hard to imagine. A tree that is taller than the tallest house! And how shocked were the Europeans who saw such a forest! It was in 1762 in the south of North America, on the Pacific coast. The tree was named Sequoia by the Austrian botanist Stefan Endlicher in honor of the outstanding leader of the American tribe of the Iroquois Sequoia. Now botanists call it sequoia dendron. This tree lives for a very long time. They call the age of both 3 and 4 thousand years. At different ages, the sequoia dendron looks different. A young tree, about a hundred years old, looks like a dark green pyramid. The translucent reddish trunk is covered with branches from the very ground to the top. Over time, the trunk becomes bare and becomes thick, and then becomes gigantic. It is known that thirty people fit freely on one stump of the Mammoth tree. And in one of the parks in America, a tunnel was pierced through its trunk, through which cars pass freely. Now there are only 500 such trees left. They are guarded, they are even given their own names, for example, "Father of the Forests", "General Grant". Its red-colored wood does not rot, and this was one of the reasons for the destruction of these trees.

Answer from VeselyVolk[guru]
Looks like a sequoia

Answer from Tatyana[guru]
Sequoiadendron giant, mammoth tree. Sequoiadendron giant, mammoth tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) Bucch.) This is a gigantic coniferous evergreen tree native to North America. Once, 60 million years ago, it was widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, and now it is preserved only in a special reserve in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The grove has only about 500 trees. This is one of the tallest and longest-lived trees on the globe. Struck by its gigantic size and the peculiar arrangement of huge arcuate hanging branches resembling mammoth tusks, the discoverers gave it the name mammoth tree.