Source: Map of the location of Sequoia National Park, Range Net
Source: Map of the location of Sequoia National Park, Range Net
In the over 400,000 acres of Sequoia National Park stands one of the largest trees on Earth, General Sherman. Sequoia National Park is located in the southern part of California.
Below are a few pictures of General Sherman.
Source: Sequoia National Park - General Sherman Tree – Panorama, World Wide Gifts, Wikimedia Commons
General Sherman Tree Looking Up, hike395, Wikimedia Commons
General Sherman, Neal Parish, Wikimedia Commons
From those pictures, it is hard to get the true size of General Sherman. Below is a comparison chart that helps put General Sherman’s massive size into perspective.
Source: Sequoia Tree Comparison Chart, Sequoias
General Sherman is a type of tree known as a Sequoia. It is approximately 83.8 meters (275 feet) tall, 7.7 meters (25 feet) in diameter and has an estimated volume of 1,487 cubic meters (52,513 cubic feet)!
Source: Sequoia Cones and Seed, Conifers
Sequoia trees have cones. The female cones contain the seeds. Pictured here are cones and seeds from a Sequoia tree. As you can tell, the Sequoia seeds are very small, about the size of a flake of oatmeal.
Here's an important question to think about.
If Sequoia seeds start out so small and grow into these large, massive trees, where does all the mass come from?
As it turns out, this question has been asked many times. What do you think the answer is?
Watch this short video to see people’s ideas on where the mass of a tree comes from.
Source: Where Do Trees Get Their Mass From?, Vertisium, YouTube
Were you correct? Did you know where the mass of a tree comes from?