please forgive my typing today. one of the big considerations for redwoods - the coastal variety - sequoia sempiverens - is the community in which they live. wildlife, other trees, condition and type of soil all play a role in the health and growth of the coastal redwoods. in fact, many of the big trees create and support their own ecosystem, with lesser trees growing from them. one California Bay found in the canopy of an old-growth redwood in Redwood National Park is the highest recorded epiphytic tree in the world, growing out of a knothole in the redwood located almost 300 feet above the ground .
redwoods need other redwoods around them in order to stimulate their vertical growth, which happens in great part as the trees compete for sunlight. they also need other redwoods around to help create their own climate which they do by blocking fog and extracting water from it. the trees absorb water through their leaves, and the water extracted from the fog rains, or more precisely, drips to the forest floor, adding moisture to the soil. temperatures along the redwood coast are not as extreme as those you mentioned. the number and types of insects in the soil contribute to the unique environment of a redwood forest. there are some which cannot be found outside of a healthy forest - in fact, while not an insect, there's a particular type of salamander which lives in the forest that is found nowhere else on earth. the type, variety, and abundance of these creatures contributes to the health of the forest. a walk through a redwood forest is unique as you'll find the ground to be a little "springy." that's the layer of duff that you'd be walking on. the duff is comprised to a great extent of fallen and decaying redwood leaves as well as vegetable matter from the other trees and plants in the forest - many of which wouldn't grow were it not for the canopy of shade and the moisture produced by the trees. the duff serves as a blanket to help regulate soil temperature, which is important because the redwood, unlike other coniferous trees, is shallow-rooted. the duff also contributes to holding needed moisture in the soil, and, as it decays provides nutrients for the redwood trees and other plants and trees. the coastal redwood forest is a very complex environment. one or two trees growing in Bath will never have such an environment, and will never attain the stature of these old giants. and let's not forget the operative word here - old. the biggest trees started growing as many as 2000 years ago. the environment was much different then - studies have shown that the ideal climate for coastal redwoods has been shrinking - and these giants have had a stronger head start than the displaced trees in Bath have had. BTW, I've not mentioned the giant sequoia - sequoiadendron giganteum - that grows in the sierras. it's a different tree and, iirc, not even related to the sequoia sempiverens along the coast. i hope this helps. there's a lot more to the forest than meets the eye ;-)) Shel "You meet the nicest people with a Pentax" > [Original Message] > From: Cotty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: pentax list <pentax-discuss@pdml.net> > Date: 11/14/2005 6:16:09 AM > Subject: Re: How to See a Tree (Arboreal Panoramas) > > On 14/11/05, Shel Belinkoff, discombobulated, unleashed: > > >and they never will be since the conditions where they are growing are > >radically different than those in their natural environment. > > Hi Shel, > > In what way are the conditions radically different? > > IIRC there are plenty of Redwoods at Big Sur, for instance. The > Californian coast is not totally dissimilar to the climate in the UK. > Note that we are on a similar lattitude to New York and Montreal, but we > do not get anywhere near the low temperatures they do. On a mid-winter's > frosty night, I would expect -8 deg C as pretty much about as low as it > goes, and nowhere near this on the coast. With Atlantic low pressure > systems come prevailing north-westerlies, westerlies, and south- > westerlies, keeping temperatures up into double figures for prolonged > spells. In the spring and autumn, daytime highs of 12 deg C are typical, > and in the summer one would expect anywhere between 19 and 24 deg C as > average. Heatwaves bring 30 deg C for a week or so. > > We are very much governed by the Atlantic, with occasional input from > the Arctic (northerlies) or Siberia (easterlies). The UK is an island > that benefits from both the gulf stream and warm moist water from the > Caribbean (called the Atlantic Conveyor). > > I would have thought that many forms of vegetation open to Pacific > weather systems would also be suitable here....
