Two sequoia trees in the Sequoia National Park

A person is standing between two sequoia trees, in the Sequoia National Park, USA, believed to be around 2000 years old. Forest fires do not kill the trees but they remove competing thin-barked species, and aid giant sequoia regeneration (note the large fire scar at the base of the right-hand tree).

Sequoiadendron giganteum (known by names such as giant sequoia, Sierra redwood, or Wellingtonia) is the only species in the genus Sequoiadendron, and one of the three species of coniferous trees known as redwood trees, classified in the family Cupressaceae and in the subfamily Sequoioideae, together with Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood). The common use of the name ‘sequoia’ generally refers to Sequoiadendron, which occurs naturally only in the various groves that exist on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.

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