This is evidenced by the discovery of fossil remains from as far back as the Jurassic period, 240 million years ago. After the end of the Ice Age, only three species out of eleven survived. We know them today by the names: Evergreen Sequoia and Mammoth Sequoia. Their home is California, but they are widespread and cultivated almost all over the world. The third species is the Chinese Metasequoia, which grows in the central regions of China.
The first recorded sighting of sequoias took place in 1852. A hunter stalking a bear stepped into the woods that are now called the "North Grove" in Calaveras State Park. Augustus the hunter was amazed by the trees. No one wanted to believe his discovery until they saw it with their own eyes. The sequoia that Augustus first saw was named the tree of discovery. A year later, the tree was cut down. Up to five men worked on it, for 22 days. After counting the rings, it was found that the tree of discovery was almost 1300 years old. A small town was said to have been built from the wood. Gradually, huge groves of redwoods began to appear. It should be mentioned that the old Indian tribes had known of their existence for centuries.
In the second half of the 19th century, much effort was devoted to the creation of English gardens, which contained a variety of different tree species. Such a garden with a redwood can be found in Slovakia, in Topoľčany. It belonged to the first Slovak president, T. G. Masaryk. What is the largest living organism on earth, you ask? Surprisingly, it is a tree - the mammoth sequoia. In the wild, sequoias can grow up to 90 metres tall and weigh up to 5,000 tonnes. When young, they grow very quickly to form a beautiful and uniform green conifer. The trunk of an adult sequoia reaches 12 metres in diameter, and the roots would cover more than an entire football field.
General Sherman is the tallest growing specimen of the mammoth sequoia. It grows in California's Sequoia National Park. It is said to be the most bulky tree on the planet. William Tecumseh Sherman, for whom the tree is named, was the commander of Northern troops in the American Civil War. He later became commander-in-chief of the United States Army.
Sequoia was nicknamed "mahogany" because of its wood colour. Its wood is hard, but it has good properties and the aforementioned beautiful colour, which is why it can be used in the manufacture of various products. The resistance to weathering is high and the durability of the wood is long. People like to use this red wood to make luxury furniture, which has a completely different aesthetic value to furniture made from classic light wood. In our country, redwoods grow to a height of about 30 metres. "Our oldest redwoods are 100-150 years old. You can find them, for example, at the castle of Červený kameň, in the area of the spa Štós, or in the arboretum Tesárske Mlyňany. One final interesting fact: In the North American Yosemite National Park, a two-lane road was built under a sequoia tree, and the tree is so huge that it was practically not threatened at all.
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