The winged seeds may fly as far as 180 m (590 ft) from the parent tree.
A mature giant sequoia disperses an estimated 300–400 thousand seeds annually. Cone production is greatest in the upper portion of the canopy. Giant sequoias of all ages may sprout from their boles when branches are lost to fire or breakage.Ī large tree may have as many as 11,000 cones. Trees may produce sprouts from their stumps subsequent to injury, until about 20 years old however, shoots do not form on the stumps of mature trees as they do on coast redwoods. Young trees start to bear cones after 12 years. Some seeds shed when the cone scales shrink during hot weather in late summer, but most are liberated by insect damage or when the cone dries from the heat of fire. Seeds are dark brown, 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) long, and 1 mm (0.04 in) broad, with a 1-millimeter (0.04 in) wide, yellow-brown wing along each side. Each cone has 30–50 spirally arranged scales, with several seeds on each scale, giving an average of 230 seeds per cone. The seed cones are 4–7 cm ( 1 + 1⁄ 2–3 in) long and mature in 18–20 months, though they typically remain green and closed for as long as 20 years. Endlicher thus coined the name "Sequoia" as both a description of the tree's genus and an honor to the indigenous man he admired. He also realized that coincidentally the genus could be described in Latin as sequi (meaning to follow) because the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus aligned in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder. A linguist and botanist, Endlicher corresponded with experts in the Cherokee language including Sequoyah, whom he admired. Endlicher is actually responsible for the name. An etymological study published in 2012 concluded that Austrian Stephen L. The etymology of the genus name has been presumed-initially in The Yosemite Book by Josiah Whitney in 1868 -to be in honor of Sequoyah (1767–1843), who was the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. Prescribed burns to reduce available fuel load may be crucial for saving the species. These conditions have led to the death of many populations in large fires in recent decades. Despite their large size and adaptations to fire, giant sequoias have become severely threatened by a combination of fuel load from fire suppression, which fuels extremely destructive fires that are also boosted by drought and climate change.
Since its last assessment as an endangered species in 2011, it was estimated that another 13–19% of the population (or 9,761–13,637 mature trees) was destroyed during the Castle Fire of 2020 and the KNP Complex & Windy Fire in 2021, events attributed to fire suppression, drought and global warming. The giant sequoia is listed as an endangered species by the IUCN, with fewer than 80,000 trees remaining. The common use of the name sequoia usually refers to Sequoiadendron giganteum, which occurs naturally only in groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. Giant sequoia specimens are the most massive trees on Earth. Sequoiadendron giganteum ( giant sequoia also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, Wellingtonia or simply big tree-a nickname also used by John Muir ) is the sole living species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of three species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (dawn redwood).