California Redwood.
The picture is one of the great marvels of nature. It shows a redwood tree in California that has just been cut down by the local citizens. At this point in time, California was still being settled by its earliest inhabitants, so there was a large demand for lumber to construct houses and serve as firewood.
One of the striking features of this particular tree, however, is its colossal size. The diameter of its trunk looks to be about four times larger than the height of the people standing in front of it. This would make the diameter near 21-22 feet long. The circumference around the base of the trunk would be near an incredible 33 feet. Yet despite the grand scale of this magnificent arbor, these locals actually managed to cut it down by hand utilizing that saw which is barely longer than the trunk.
The true name for the redwoods is the sequoia, but many people refer to them by its common name, the California Redwood. These trees are evergreen, meaning their foliage never falls like it does on other trees, and they are the tallest trees that still exist today. The maximum height of the sequoia is about 377 feet tall and their trunks can max out at about 30 feet. One of their most interesting features is the fact that these trees possess the ability to reproduce by budding like some trees do, yet still produce and distribute seeds like most trees.
Floods and fires are also able to be weathered by this tree’s structure as its roots are deep enough not to drown from rising water and its bark is resilient against small flames. The redwood has become a symbol of California because of how interesting an organism it is.