That was because I found it in a park where tearing apart cones to find their seeds is frowned upon. 🙂
The seeds look something like this:
(Photo by Danny S. at Wikimedia)
It belongs to the coast redwood tree, Sequoia sempervirens.
It is amazing that such a small seed, only about the size of a tomato seed, can produce such a massive tree. Coast redwoods can grow up to 375 feet tall.
The trees also live a long time. You can tell how old a tree is by counting its rings.
Actually redwoods don’t often grow from seeds. More frequently they sprout from a parent tree, causing a ring of seedlings.
New redwoods can also sprout from burls, lumpy growths that form on the sides of the trunk. Now that is wild!
No matter how they grow, coast redwood trees are still impressive. So impressive that photographs can’t do them justice. You really need to see them in real life.
Coast redwoods are only found naturally along the west coast of California and Oregon, although they have been introduced a few other places.
Isn’t that amazing? With Earth Day and Arbor Day celebrations going on, it’s a great time to go out into the woods and learn more about big trees.
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