A redwood tree whose crown is a forest canopy

Ancient redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) often have complex crowns consisting of multiple, resprouted trunks. This study focuses on a single redwood tree, which is known as the Redwood Creek Giant, growing in Tall Trees Grove of Redwood National Park, CA. It is the sixteenth tallest (109.8 m) known living tree and the twentieth largest (744.7 m3 wood volume) known living redwood. The main trunk, which is 5.6 m in diameter at the base and still over 3 m in diameter at 65 m, is devoid of branches for 54 m. Above this height, its crown becomes a forest; there are a total of 148 resprouted trunks arising from the main trunk, other trunks, or branches. Five of these trunks exceed 1 m basal diameter, and twelve of them are between 0.5 and 1 m basal diameter. The largest resprouted trunk is 40 m long. Many of the trunks are fused to other trunks and/or branches. The tree's crown, which begins above 50 m, is over 25 m diameter 100 m above the ground. A variety of vascular plant species grow as epiphytes in this tree, including two ferns (Polypodium scouleri and P. glycyrrhiza), a shrub (Vaccinium ovatum), and two trees (Lithocarpus densiflorus and Umbellularia californica). The highest recorded epiphytic tree, an U. californica, grows from a knothole 98.3 m above the groundSillett and VanPelt "A redwood tree whose crown is a forest canopy." Northwest Science. 2000; 74(1): 34-4