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I did not know that.
Being reported in all the usual places today. Thriving up in Scotland for instance but struggling with the increasing heat in California.
I still prefer our indigenous trees (yew, im looking at you!) but they are still wonderful things by any measure.
They can live to around 3,000 years so our ones of around 170 years old are mere babies.
Loads in UK on imported seeds in NT sites. Bodnant is one
Nature adapts to changing climate shocker.
If you are ever round Surrey Porridge mtb area, then check the Redwoods here
From https://maps.app.goo.gl/EphnC2zummJNWNj9A?g_st=ic
To
https://maps.app.goo.gl/54SXVRHNjuDbxvSWA?g_st=ic
Plus all those in Brookwood Cemetery.
lovely!
"matt_outandabout
Full Member
Nature adapts to changing climate shocker."
In fairness it's as much about the opposite. They are struggling in their native climate so like other flora and fauna they might have to gain footholds in other areas or even continents. That's obviously much more difficult for trees and such to achieve without the potential need for human intervention.
I love a redwood/sequoia, dunno why but I think of them as big friendly giants. A mate has a few in the grounds of his house and up his woods, the thickness of their bark is amazing, soft/spongy at certain times of the year as they hold a lot of water. I used to collect the fallen branches and place bits on the radiators in the house for the aroma it gave off.
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Largely thanks to the rich person's conifer craze in the 1800s- I love that quite often, the actual estate and mansion is completely gone, the family's died out but the trees remain. Imagine going to Bob the gardener with a sapling or seed and saying, plant it carefully, it could live for centuries and grow to be the biggest tree in the country. Always love finding them
My old work was built on the site of an abandoned stately home, I had one of the oldest giant redwoods in europe right outside my window. Just a tiddler though really! Managed to get some saplings to grow from its cones, but never had any survive past a couple of inches.
One thing to note - none of those in the U.K. will shed seeds that’ll germinate and grow. They require special circumstances in order to do that, specifically wildfires, which open the cones, clear the undergrowth and prepare the ground for the seeds to germinate. It’s possible they might adapt, but those 1/2 million were all grown from American seedlings brought over here.
Still, we’ve still got 400,000 more than their homelands have.
Northwind, that's the case with the 'Wellingtonia' that is in the field behind my parents house. The remains of the 'castle' walls and a few buildings remain but the main house was knocked down donkeys years ago.
For some reason I think you are in Shrewsbury? Sundorne 'Castle' is the place. Not that it was ever a castle. Just some rich doods decided to build themselves a fake one.
Rootes1 may have seen it around 30 years ago 😀
Interesting.
I’m living in Ca at the moment and fortunate to ride thru the redwoods almost every week, either road or mtb.
They are majestic trees
Except all the giant sequoia are limited to the Sierra Nevada mountains in California
"It’s natural that a whole country would have more trees than a part of a country."
I know it's early but that's a fairly daft statement!
Did it not partly friend in the size of the countries?
😉
Yeah, the massive number of wildfires in California haven't help either...
i discovered this fact when in california on a trip to yosemite. i was quite surprised when the guide asked if anyone else knows the only other place in the world giant redwoods grow. turns out its on one of mynfavourite routes i did weekly. boulderwoood ornamental drive in the new forest. has 2 giant redwoods and loads of coastal.
guide also said they have very shallow root systems and they stay upright by meshing together with the other redwoods. so if thats true and the ones in this country arent planted close together then they may not make 3000 years
and yep they need fire to germinate
i have a cone on my shelf in the downstairs loo. surprisingly small for such a big tree.
Interesting, and loads around me - pretty much every Scottish Border 'estate' has a few of them and as said above all planted from seeds sent back.
Benmore Botanic Garden is worth a visit if you like trees , some very big ones there
All cared for by the Edinburgh botanical garden folk and it rains there a lot so should last a few years to come
I know it’s early but that’s a fairly daft statement!
Did it not partly friend in the size of the countries?
I know its early but can you translate that last line? 🤔 😅
We stumbled on some giant redwoods in the ‘Dales last October. Up until that I point I’d assumed they only grew in California (or thereabouts.) was amazed to find out they are quite prevalent in the Uk. Did not know they were only in the UK though.
A good book about climbing them and ecology. " The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring"
Loads in UK on imported seeds in NT sites.
Largely thanks to the rich person’s conifer craze in the 1800s
Bloody immigrant trees, coming over here with their la-de-da towering stature, stunting the growth of our English oaks.
(someone had to say it)
Some on the edge of Cannock Chase in Shugborough. They are great, better than the Groot tree.
Speaking of trees - I planted this one on today's doggo morning walk. It was rescued from a Christmas table decoration.
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Is that the dog in the act of 'christening' it?
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Is that one I can see from my bedroom? I might go and punch it to find out 😀 😀
was amazed to find out they are quite prevalent in the Uk. Did not know they were only in the UK though.
They're not only in the UK.
Was in a forest in France last year and there were lots of them. Somewhere around the Loire/Tours.
Have seen some in Germany and Italy, too.
Despite the trees growing, they're not going to germinate new trees here in Europe. They're just ornaments.
^^ Yep, the expert on the news yesterday said they became a bit of a status symbol and were sought by individuals and governments from a fair few countries in the 1800's.
I love a redwood/sequoia, dunno why but I think of them as big friendly giants.
It's all the Qi grasshopper.
posted location above - I quite often ride through them - planted in 1865 apparently:
https://www.redwoodworld.co.uk/picturepages/camberley.htm
One of the few highlights of Camberley!
Never knew there where any in the UK, let alone so many!
Want to see one now. Where's the nearest to Salford?
There are a few lovely ones near me in Monmouthshire
I fancy planting one in the garden! I’ll never see it grow - but hopefully someone will 🤷♂️
that website is great, turns out there is one on my lunch time run I've not spotted before, I shall go looking for it!
I believe there are a couple in lordswood southampton too, I presume the smaller coastal version
Are there other trees that have the soft balsa wood like feel to the bark that you can mix up with a redwood?
There's a couple of them in Brandon Country Park, near Thetford - magnificent trees!
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[url= https://i.postimg.cc/7Zpj7r3v/KRed.jp g" target="_blank">https://i.postimg.cc/7Zpj7r3v/KRed.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
We just had to give it a hug.. 😊
Cheers, didn't spot that. Double yikes then, some of those trees are quite far apart right next to those houses.
I was lucky enough to go to Sequoia National Park in the mid 90’s and saw some of the really big old redwoods. They are all above about 4000ft elevation. It is difficult to comprehend just how big they are until you get close to them because in a stand of the large trees there are no ‘normal’ height ones to give a sense of scale. The bark alone is a few feet thick apparently
That Redwood World website is ace. Thanks to that I've just learnt that the x 4 super cool douglas firs that I can see as I lay in bed are actually Giant Redwoods.
For 15 years I've enjoyed looking at the tress as I open my curtains in the morning, or dozing off on light summer night looking at them, and now I know they are Redwoods. Awesome stuff.
Edit: Even better! I realise now that I have x4 50m behind my house and another 2 at the top of my street that I go past on morning dog walk every day. This is really brightened up my day.
franksinatra
Full MemberThat Redwood World website is ace. Thanks to that I’ve just learnt that the x 4 super cool douglas firs that I can see as I lay in bed are actually Giant Redwoods.
They have pretty distinctive cones, that's the easiest way to id them.
(Dougies are sort of hilariously nonconformist, you look at tree id guides and yeah, mostly they do look like in the books but every so often you find one that's gone rogue, "* it lads, I'm going to grow OUTWARDS instead of up" and it becomes a rectangle. Or "Right that's enough of this upwards lark, I'm going to go 90 degrees left for a bit, then maybe I'll go straight down til I hit the ground again and then start over and pretend I'm a different tree lol")
supernova
Full MemberI’d be happy to see the FoD planted with trees that take 1000 years to mature so the Forestry and their ‘working forest’ bullshit could * off for a millennium.
There's quite a few in the fod, not just in the bits where they've made an attraction of it but fairly random seeming in the forest and also around the towns. I think a bunch were planted there basically as an experiment in forestry, like at kilmun. Not just redwoods mind, there's allsorts, massive old red cedars and lodgepoles and silver firs and such, sometimes growing as if wild in the forest
Oh yeah speaking of Kilmun, if you're a tree nerd and down in that part of the country (near Benmore botanical gardens), it's fantastic. You've got Benmore itself obviously, and Puck's Glen nearby is a must visit too, but Kilmun's differnet, it's a forestry commission experimental arboretum, they planted out blocks of pretty much whatever might possibly make for a good future forestry tree, so rather than the usual parkland or single trees or avenues, it's just forestry blocks except full of redwoods or lodgepoles or eucalypts or, well, whatever they could get their hands on. And then just pretty much left to grow with minimal intervention. Some have totally failed, some aren't doing well, none are massively old but for a lot of these trees it's going to end up as close to a natural forest as there is anywhere outside of their home range. It's a bollocks to explore, the paths barely exist and it was never intended as an attraction but it's totally worth it.
rootes1
Full Memberposted location above – I quite often ride through them – planted in 1865 apparently:
I bought a car from a dude that lived just round the corner from there! Had to drive it back to Edinburgh so I couldn't stop long but it is stunning. And all the better for just kind of being there, rather than in an arboretum or botanical garden, I'd never heard of it til I stumbled over it. Another abandoned estate thing I think?
Reminded me of a paragraph from Steinbeck's Travels With Charley. He reaches his old home turf in Monterey and talks about the Redwoods.
"A number of years ago, a newcomer, a stranger, moved to my country near Monterey. His senses must have been blunted and atrophied with money and the getting of it. He bought a grove of sempervirens in a deep valley near the coast, and then, as was his right by ownership, he cut them down and sold the lumber, and left on the ground the wreckage of his slaughter. Shock and numb outrage filled the town. This was not only murder but sacrilege. We looked on that man with loathing, and he was marked to the day of his death"
Here’s the local tree. Was destined to be removed when the house nearby was refused insurance. That’s been rescinded.
https://www.datchetvillagesociety.org.uk/saving-datchets-landmark-170-year-old-wellingtonia/
bigrich
Full Member
The Riding at Santa cruz amongst the redwoods is amazing.
Obviously I'm sad in saying this but on Zwift my favourite course is Sand and Sequoias. It's not really the same though unfortunately. Lol
So coincidentally I just discovered that these articles are all basically bollocks. They all seem to be just repeating and quoting an earlier article which incorrectly compared the number of mature giant redwoods in California, vs the total number in the UK, but in reality there are hundreds of thousands of younger trees outside of the old growth groves that just aren't catalogued in the Cali numbers
Seems to be an honest mistake- California just can't get excited about a hundred year old giant redwood when they've got the big lads to look at, whereas for us even the tiddlers are a big deal. And of course the preservation arguments rightly focus on the old growth to exclusion, as there's no way to replace a 3000 year old tree unless you did it 2999 years ago.
Even if there was no comparison to California that there are 500k Giant Redwoods in the UK is a surprising fact on it’s own.
Yep, definitely.
Leave Curious explores the redwoods of the UK.
Just checked to make sure but there’s a pretty big one in the grounds of The Manor House Hotel in Castle Combe, a pretty s****y place with its own golf course, where a ‘village’ was set up for filming of the Robin of Sherwood series.
We have a few here in Clumber Park/ Thoresby
Also I've been to sea that giant one - General Sherman. Big lad. Sequoia National Parks was one of my favourites.
And that crazy on you can drive through up the Pacific coast - called in at that.
Novelty aside they are great.
So coincidentally I just discovered that these articles are all basically bollocks.
Thought it was a bit odd.
Having driven up there their forests are immense.
au contraire, the natural cycle of wildfires clears the land and opens the cones providing the idea conditions for germination.
Its putting out wildfires that is the problem.
<quote> wzzzz
Free Member
au contraire, the natural cycle of wildfires clears the land and opens the cones providing the idea conditions for germination. </quote>
Was, but currently isn't. The ground and deadfall's drier, the trees are drier, the wildfires are hotter. And human interaction is a problem; basically wherever there's human inhabitation and development we try to prevent fires but that often means that when there is a fire, it's much worse, since it's been longer since the last one. This last one's a work in progress, they do controlled burns and manual clearance now in the old groves to try and reset it a bit but it's a massive job.
Sequoia are fire resistant but not fire proof, they estimate that 20% of all of the surviving oldgrowth giants have been destroyed by fire in the last 10 years
It did seem an unlikely statistic. We’ve driven down through the Big Sur and it’s not exactly a small place - think “Northumberland”, all of it. And that’s just the bit on the coast.
The big trees there are big. Really mind-blowing huge.
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Multiple posters have stated that the seeds require fire to germinate.
I don't think this is true. Fire is an important feature of the life cycle of the natural forests, particularly in creating space for new trees to germinate, but the seeds themselves do not need any heat or smoke. At least, that is the result of 5 minutes of web searching, looking at a number of seemingly reliable sources. I didn't see any support for the claim that fire and/or smoke was particularly helpful.
(Some tree seeds do require smoke and/or fire. But sequoia are not one of them. Feel free to collect seeds from your local tree and give it a go.)