'' General Sherman '- the giant sequoia - with a height of 83.3 meters, a diameter of 7.7 meters and a volume of 1,487 cubic meters, has been approved by Guinness World Records,
as the largest "body" on earth. Specialists have estimated the age old 2300-2700 years.
Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), whose crown has a diameter of 33 m and whose branches start at a height of 40 meters, is located in the National Park Tree Sequoia in California, USA, is one of the most impressive organisms on Earth.
Like many other sequoias in the park, like General Grant Tree, according www.visitsequoia.com, it bears since 1870, the general's name in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865), William Tecumseh Sherman.
Sequoia forests spanning the California coast on a length of 725 km on a narrow strip of southwestern Oregon to central California, never further away than 80 km from the sea. Sequoia protected forests covering an area of 1,400 square kilometers. The two species that are found here are: Sequoia Sempervirens or 'coast redwood' and Sequoiadendron giganteum or Giant Sequoia, both protected by law. The third species called 'dawn redwood' '(Metasequoia), which endangered, can be found in China.
Sequoia is a species of gymnosperms, which can live for thousands of years, reaching a height of 145 meters and a circumference of 38 meters. These giant trees were baptized by Stephen Endlicher German botanist named after a local tribal chief, or Sikwayi Sequoyah, inventor of the first phonetic alphabet of Cherokee Indians.
Sequoia wood is rough, being heavily soaked with resin, and is fire resistant thanks to its spongy bark, which in turn can reach up to 1 meter thick and is impregnated with the substance that drives insects
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