Giant UK Redwoods

[evacguy]

Giant Redwoods in the New Forest, on the Tall Trees Trail, Rhinefield Road. They were planted around 1860 and are about 56m and 50m tall. While the UK redwoods can't compete with their US cousins in terms of age and height, I was surprised to learn that the UK has more than half a million redwoods, more than in the USA. Both the coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) having caught the attention of the early Victorian plant hunters, made it to the British Isles in the 1800s.

Check out the two guys in the bottom right for a sense of scale.

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II
• 24.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/30 sec
• ISO 100

 

[Richard A]

Will they grow as tall as those in the US?

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Will they grow as tall as those in the US?

Possibly! They shouldn't really be here though.

 

[Richard A]

No. We have a terrible amount of feral plants & animals that have caused environmental havoc (that’s not really a strong enough description) over here. Funnily enough though, I can’t think of any from North America.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Our worst American imports, aside from MacDonalds, are the Grey Squirrel and the American Signal Crayfish.
The Grey Squirrel carry a virus that has almost wiped out our native Red Squirrels, and the Crayfish have absolutely devastated our river systems and they breed so fast we can't get rid of them.

 

[evacguy]

Will they grow as tall as those in the US?

Quite possibly, they are still very young and the super large ones in the USA are hundreds of years old, some even over a thousand years. The Redwood species in the USA are on the endangered list so it is good that they are thriving elsewhere. I believe the tallest in the UK are in Scotland. Forestry England look after most of the Redwoods in the England. There was an interesting recent article in The Guardian newspaper celebrating the English giant Redwoods,

“People are often worried that they’re an invasive species, but they seem to be pretty benign,” Wilkes says. “There’s no evidence they’re self-seeding.”

Hidden giants: how the UK’s 500,000 redwoods put California in the shade

Researchers found that the Victorians brought so many seeds and saplings to Britain that experts say the giant redwoods now outnumber those in their US homeland

www.theguardian.com

 

[Richard A]

Most of the invasive plants (weeds) we have here are from South America or South Africa but blackberries are also a huge problem. As far as animals go: rabbits; foxes; cats; wild boar; donkeys; camels; goats; deer; European carp; cane toads; starlings; blackbirds; Indian mynas…

 

[evacguy]

Most of the invasive plants (weeds) we have here are from South America or South Africa but blackberries are also a huge problem. As far as animals go: rabbits; foxes; cats; wild boar; donkeys; camels; goats; deer; European carp; cane toads; starlings; blackbirds; Indian mynas…

Richard, I think most of suburban Australian (99% of the country) will disagree about cats - aussies love their cats.

 

[Richard A]

aussies love their cats.

Well, I don’t know about that! But anyway, I was referring to the massive population of wild feral cats which kill more native birds & animals than all the other feral animals put together. They are a massive problem. We had a dead possum on our front lawn a couple of weeks ago that was killed by a cat. It is the law in a lot of parts of the country now, including all of South Australia that pet cats must be microchipped & are not allowed outside at night. If a council ranger finds a cat that is not microchipped they can be euthanised straight away. Dogs must be microchipped here also, by the way.

 

[evacguy]

Well, I don’t know about that! But anyway, I was referring to the massive population of wild feral cats which kill more native birds & animals than all the other feral animals put together. They are a massive problem. We had a dead possum on our front lawn a couple of weeks ago that was killed by a cat. It is the law in a lot of parts of the country now, including all of South Australia that pet cats must be microchipped & are not allowed outside at night. If a council ranger finds a cat that is not microchipped they can be euthanised straight away. Dogs must be microchipped here also, by the way.

It's the same problem with cats here in the UK, they are also not a native animal, but are considered as such.

 

[Richard A]

They seem to thrive here in the warmer, dryer parts of the country for some reason.

 

[Roland]

On the west coast of the US, coastal redwoods grow only on naturally thin sliver of land. They need in the summer daily fog to survive. In California that band is not more than 2 km wide. Logging in these areas over 100 years ago was extensive but short lived.
England seems to me a perfect climate (no offenense) for those trees and I have no doubt, in a few hundert years a British redwood will surpass a california tree in size..

 

[evacguy]

On the west coast of the US, coastal redwoods grow only on naturally thin sliver of land. They need in the summer daily fog to survive. In California that band is not more than 2 km wide. Logging in these areas over 100 years ago was extensive but short lived.
England seems to me a perfect climate (no offenense) for those trees and I have no doubt, in a few hundert years a British redwood will surpass a california tree in size..

Roland, our climate is changing due to climate change. We have even started to experience wildfires. So hopefully, our climate won't change too much so that the Redwoods can't thrive.

 

[Cαscαdian]

I was surprised to find a few sempervirens growing in our yard, sprung from huge old stumps. We're in the hills about 60 miles up the Columbia river, so a reasonably friendly environment - but unexpected. The nearby city of Longview has a couple of monsters in one of their parks, which planted a large variety of species a hundred years back ±.