Mamontovo tree in Yosemite Valley

If you're in Yosemite Valley, do not forget to inspect one of the most well-known tree species on earth-giant Mamontovo tree, Sequoiadendron giganteum (or Sequoia Sigantea). Near the southern entrance to Yosemite Park is growing some of these trees, and among them one very old, perhaps 3000 - the year «Grizzly Giant» («Grizzly - Giant") in height M - its diameter at the base to nearly 7.5 m in the Sierra - Nevada has a few more places to grow a tree, for example, in Sequoia National Park, on the only few areas of the globe, where a giant Mammoth tree still found in its natural habitat. giganteum specific name for the tree Mammoth Sierra - Nevada is really justified. It reaches a height of 100 meters and the diameter of the trunk sometimes exceeds 14 m. In addition Sequoiadendron giganteum, there is a second, like species, also found only in the western U.S., although in a more temperate climate the Coast Ranges near San - Francisco, between 36 and 43 ° C. sh. This is the coastal redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, «evergreen" Mammoth tree. Those who will be in San - Francisco, urge to visit one of located near habitat of this species (Muir woods - Woods, on the other side of the bridge Golden - Gate. designation of this species as "evergreen" unfortunate, because a giant tree Mamontovo also evergreen. The fact is that at first were known only to the coastal redwood, and her distant relatives in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, the so-called swamp cypress (Taxodium), while the latter does not evergreen, that is, belong to another species. redwoods of the Coast - for its pink color is very hard wood is also called "mahogany." generic designation of Sequoia Recalls Indians nosivshem this name who invented the alphabet for the language of the tribe of Cherokee. Giant Mamontovo tree grows well in the climatic conditions of Central Europe, for example, in West Germany, but sometimes it can be found even in Norway. His slender cone-shaped, it stands out among other trees. But all instances of Europe is not older than 100 -110 years, so as the first seeds were brought here only in 1853, two Sequoia classic examples of living fossils, ie organisms that would have to meet only the petrified form. In the Tertiary period Mammoth trees were distributed throughout the northern hemisphere and in the form of charred trunks and branches they are found in brown coal seams of Tertiary age in central Europe. From this giant-size range for unknown reasons, remained only a few habitats in the Sierra - Nevada and Coast Ranges in San - Francisco. Apparently, the redwoods are on the verge of extinction, and Both the modern species are the last of the once large group of conifers. The Museum of the Geological Institute in Cologne, exhibited a giant slice of Mammoth tree brought from California. night spent in the chopped hut, lost in the Sierra - Nevada among the vast tree trunks - giants like ghosts stretching branch to the starry sky, made a big impression on me. plantlets grown from seed brought me, started at 15 cm from the ground (until it is far from "Mamontovo tree»).