What is the difference between a sequoia and a redwood tree?
Giant Sequoias and Coast Redwood Trees are closely related and they are both in the redwood family, Taxodiaceae. However, they are different species. Giant Sequoias (scientific name Sequoiadendron gigantea) are considered the largest trees in the world as measured by the volume of their trunk. The biggest Giant Sequoias can be 40 feet wide at their bases and 275 feet high for a total trunk volume of up to 52,500 cubic feet. Giant Sequoias grow naturally only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Coast Redwoods (scientific name Sequoia sempervirens) are considered to be the world’s tallest trees and they can get as tall as 365 feet. Coast Redwoods grow naturally only along the Pacific coast of northern California and into southern Oregon. There is another redwood tree that was once thought to be extinct. It is the Dawn Redwood and it grows naturally only in central China. Its scientific name is Metasequoia glyptostroboides and does not grow to any great size
The redwoods in Northern California (two species in different genus but the same family) are commonly called “Coast Redwood” for Sequoia sempervirens and “Giant Sequoia” for the Sequoiadendron giganteum. As a family of related trees (there are only three species in the world) they are called collectively either “redwoods” OR “sequoias”. At one time, redwoods domininated the world’s temperate forests, and what you see are relics from a different age that somehow survived in pockets here and there. You will need to fly or drive to Northern California to see the trees. San Francisco is the entry point to the Redwood Empire, primarily in forest pockets to the north of the city, along the coast to the Oregon border. They don’t grow everywhere and conditions have to be PERFECT for them to grow and thrive; primarily the main factor is sufficient moisture during California’s dry summers from the fog that rolls into Northern California from May to September. There ARE groves of redwoods south t
