Youth Education Program

of San Francisco Botanical Garden Society

Redwood Trail

Redwood Tree Facts

Here are some interesting facts that emphasize the unique nature of the redwoods, and remind us of the importance of trees in our lives. Regal Redwoods:
The oldest known coast redwood is 2,200 years old. The tallest is 367.8 feet tall taller than a 35-story building! The most massive known redwood is a giant sequoia named General Sherman. It weighs 12 million pounds (as much as a small steamship), and contains enough Basic Information wood to build 40, 5-room houses. Each redwood seed weighs only 1/800th of an ounce. Fewer than one in a million seeds survives to become a mature redwood. Redwoods can hold as much as 8,000 gallons of water. They can sweat or transpire up to 500 gallons a day to keep the air around them moist. The bark of a mature redwood can be from 6 to 12 thick. Countries that have climates similar to coastal California have successfully grown stands of redwoods on plantations. Redwoods now grow in New Zealand, South Africa, England, Hawaii, British Columbia, and even Switzerland. Early Spanish explorers camped beneath a redwood they named palo alto (tall tree). El Palo Alto still stands today just outside the city that bears its name.

Terrific Trees:
It is recognized that over 5,000 products and by-products come from trees! Conifers, like the redwood, provide us with 75% of all cut timber. An actively growing tree releases enough oxygen each day to meet the daily needs of a family of four. (We each use about a pound of oxygen a day). One tree can absorb up to 13 pounds of carbon dioxide a year enough to offset the carbon dioxide produced by a car driven 26,000 miles. Evaporation from one large tree can equal the cooling effect of ten air conditioners running 20 hours per day. The average amount of paper used by one person in one year during 1980 was 880 pounds! Half of the paper in the U.S. is used for packaging. Rainforests comprise only 2% of the earths surface, but they contain over half of all known species of plants, animals, and insects. Scientists estimate that every hour 1100 acres of rainforest are cleared in South and Central America.