“Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – are flourishing” in England, reports the BBC. There are now more of them in England than in California.
The trees, which were first brought to England about 160 years ago, “are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California.”
California still has more redwood trees overall — found mostly in its coastal range — but fewer giant redwoods, which are located in the Sierra Nevada range of California.
Due to their youth, the English redwoods aren’t yet as tall as the California redwoods. In California the tallest reach 300 feet high, but in England, the tallest is only about 180 feet tall.
“Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years, so there’s still plenty of time for the UK’s trees to catch up,” notes the BBC.
There are about half a million redwoods in England, Scotland, and Wales, including giant redwoods as well as coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods, both of which were introduced at later dates. Most of the English redwoods are giant redwoods.
“By comparison there are about 80,000 mature giant redwoods in their native range in the forests of California.”
“Half a million trees is quite a lot to go under the radar until now, but it’s when you start looking for them in the landscape, and compiling these datasets, that you realise how many there are,” said Dr Phil Wilkes, co-author of the most recent study about English redwoods.
“Giant redwoods were first brought to the UK by the Victorians. They were the ultimate botanical status symbol, typically planted in the grand estates of the wealthy. Today, some form sweeping avenues while others stand in ones or twos. But they’re easy to spot: their dense, cone-shaped crowns stand proud of everything around them,” notes the BBC.
English scientists recently sampled 5,000 trees to study in England and Scotland. “They used laser scanners to measure the heights and volumes of some of the trees…The researchers found that the trees were growing about as fast as the giant redwoods in their native home in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.”
The English climate suits them, says Dr. Wilkes.”Where they grow in California, it’s cooler and moister than you would typically envisage California to be. And we have a reasonably similar climate here – it’s very wet and they need the moisture to grow.”
In California, redwoods are facing threats due to hotter and drier weather and more intense wildfires.
So England might become their new home, if people make an effort to plant more of them there.
“Giant redwoods are being planted as saplings all over the country, often by local authorities in public parks or recreation grounds,” notes the BBC.
“They’re very fast growing, and they grow large. Once they reach about 60m, they will be the tallest trees in Britain, and then they will keep on growing,” Professor Disney says.
“However, while the trees are doing well in the UK, there’s little chance of them taking over our native forests any time soon – they’re not reproducing here as they need very specific conditions to take seed.”
