Mastodawn

Mark McCaughrean Mar 13, 2024

Who knew? 😳

While there are only 80,000 of those iconic giant redwoods left in their native California (I blame all those rubbish speedbike riders in Return of the Jedi), there are 500,000 now growing in the UK.

Smaller so far, given that they’re much younger, but apparently the warm wet weather conditions suit them well & the largest are already over 50 metres tall.

Story & pix by my lovely friends Becky Morelle, Ali Francis, & Tony Jolliffe at the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68518623

Giant redwoods: World’s largest trees 'thriving in UK'

A survey of giant redwoods growing in the UK reveals the trees are doing well - and growing fast.

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Paul Martin Mar 13, 2024

@markmccaughrean Sadly it appears they cannot reproduce here.

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Mark McCaughrean Mar 13, 2024

@nowster Yes, I spotted that part of the story & it surprised me. Can they be “helped” to reproduce locally or have all 500,000 trees been grown from imported fertilised seeds?

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@richh has moved Mar 13, 2024

@markmccaughrean @nowster IIRC, part of their lifecycle is forest fires opening up the seed pods. Something many Botanic Gardens are unwilling to replicate for some reason! 🤷‍♂️ I assume individual specimens in parks and gardens would also have difficulty getting fertilised, so require artificial propagation.

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@richh has moved

@markmccaughrean @nowster On the wildfire front, I believe this realisation is one reason US National Parks are doing more prescribed burns - burns are important for controlling wildfires (clearing out understory), but also no new sequoia were germinating when they had their policy of just trying to suppress fires - turns out that was why. They were interrupting the reproductive cycle.