The most massive tree on Earth by volume, an evergreen conifer of the western Sierra Nevada whose fire-blackened trunks can outlast civilisations.
Where it grows
Giant sequoia is restricted to about 70 isolated groves on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, between 1400 and 2400 metres elevation. It prefers cool, moist canyons where snowmelt feeds the soil through summer.
How to recognise it
A mature giant sequoia is unmistakable: an enormous columnar trunk with deeply furrowed cinnamon-red bark up to 90 centimetres thick, narrowing little until the high crown of stubby branches. The General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park weighs about 1,250 tonnes — the largest single-stem living organism by volume on Earth.
Uses
The brittle wood splinters badly when felled, so early loggers wasted most of what they cut. Today the species is planted worldwide as an ornamental, including across western Europe where some Victorian-era specimens are already 50 metres tall.
Conservation
Sequoias evolved with low-intensity ground fires that clear competition and open their cones. A century of fire suppression has built up dangerous fuel loads, and recent megafires killed roughly 13 to 19 percent of all mature giant sequoias between 2020 and 2021.