Friends of Belfast Botanic Gardens

Tree of the month series - this series of short articles about trees in the Belfast Botanic Gardens is compiled by members of the Friends group and Gardens staff. The series will gradually build up to a comprehensive archive of information about the trees in Belfast Botanic gardens. Each article will illustrate the tree in Belfast together with information from a range of sources elsewhere. Click here for the rest of the trees

Tree of the Month, January 2009

Coastal Redwood- Sequoia sempervirens

by Jonathan Pilcher

There are three "redwoods" - the dawn redwood (Metasequoia), the coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum).

The coastal redwood is restricted in the wild to a small coastal strip from California to Oregon. One of the most famous locations is Muir Woods, a few km from the Golden Gate Bridge. There they grow bathed in sea-fogs during the summer; they also grow very well in the damp west of the British Isles. They grow quickly from seed. The leaves are quite similar to those of Metasequoia but unlike this genus, they are evergreen (hence the species name sempervirens - "ever-green"). The coastal redwood produces epicormic shoots which tend to form a group of young trees around the base of old trees and unlike most conifers it can coppice. The epicormic shoots also form burs on the trunk. The foresters cut these off and sell them to tourists as they can be kept alive for many months in a saucer of water. Income from tourism helps to preserve the fragile sequoia ecosystem.

Old coastal redwood in Belfast Botanic Gardens (central tree).	Fronts and backs of leaves. The leaves are not deciduous unlike those of the Dawn redwood
Stomata on the backs of leaves	Male cone
Trunk of Coastal Redwood (tree in Castleward estate). The base of these trees typically are surrounded by shoots and young trees arising from the trunk and roots	The three redwoods in the Belfast Botanic Gardens: Mg=Metasequoia, Ss= Sequoia sempervirens, Sg= Sequoiadendron giganteum

Photos taken in 2008 in Belfast Botanic Gardens and Castleward estate. Copyright Jon Pilcher