Sequoia (genus)

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Sequoia
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic – Present
Sequoia sempervirens1.jpg
Sequoia sempervirens
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Gymnospermae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Cupressales
Family: Cupressaceae
Subfamily: Sequoioideae
Genus: Sequoia
Endl. nom. cons.
Type species
Sequoia sempervirens
Species
Sequoia Sequoiadendron range map.png
Natural ranges of Sequoia and Sequiodendron
green - Sequoia sempervirens
red - Sequoiadendron giganteum
Synonyms [1]
  • CondylocarpusSalisb. ex Lamb.
  • GigantabiesJ.Nelson
"Icicle Tree" showing burling of the trunk Icicle Tree - Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve.jpeg
"Icicle Tree" showing burling of the trunk

Sequoia is a genus of redwood coniferous trees in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. The only extant species of the genus is Sequoia sempervirens in the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon in the United States. [1] [2] The two other genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae, Sequoiadendron and Metasequoia , are closely related to Sequoia. It includes the tallest trees, as well as the heaviest, in the world.

Contents

Several extinct species have been named from fossils, including Sequoia affinis (Western North America), Sequoia chinensis (no valid reference, identification uncertain) of China, Sequoia langsdorfii (reclassified as Metasequoia), [3] Sequoia dakotensis (reclassified as Metasequoia) [3] of South Dakota (Maastrichtian), and Sequoia magnifica (petrified wood from the Yellowstone National Park area).

Etymology

The name Sequoia was first published as a genus name by the Austrian botanist Stephan Endlicher in 1847. [4] However, he left no specific reasons for choosing that name, and there is no record of anyone else speaking to him about its origin.[ citation needed ]

Beginning in the 1860s, it was suggested that the name is a derivation from the Latin word for "sequence", since the species was thought to be a follower or remnant of massive ancient, extinct species, and thus the next in a sequence. [5]

However, in a 2012 article, author Gary Lowe argues that Endlicher would not have had the knowledge to conceive of Sequoia sempervirens as the successor to a fossil sequence, and that he more likely saw it, within the framework of his taxonomic arrangements, as completing a morphological sequence of species in regards to the number of seeds per cone scale. [5]

In 2017, Nancy Muleady-Mecham of Northern Arizona University, after extensive research with original documents in Austria, claimed to find a positive link to the person Sequoyah (the inventor of the Cherokee writing system) and Endlicher, as well as information that the use of the Latin sequor would not have been correct. [6] However there are debilitating limitations to the arguments presented in the 2017 article. The alleged positive link is based on a similarity in pronunciation of the words "Sequoyah" and "Sequoia": valid to persons that think in English, but not those that think in German or Latin. Endlicher could not have known how Sequoyah's name was pronounced in Cherokee since he did not have the opportunity to hear spoken Cherokee. The claimed use of Latin ignores Endlicher's philological background and familiarity with the Latin of the ancient manuscripts in the royal library on which he extensively published. Endlicher's Botanical Latin prefix in the genus name Sequoia was derived from the Latin verb "sequor", and was not a conjugation of the verb. [7]

Paleontology

Sequoia jeholensis is the oldest recorded member of the genus Sequoia (along with Sequoia portlandica, but this name is a nomen dubium ), known from the Jiufotang Formation (Lower Cretaceous) and the Jiulongshan Formation (Middle Jurassic) of China. [8] By the late Cretaceous the ancestral sequoias were established in Europe, parts of China, and western North America.[ citation needed ] Comparisons among fossils and modern organisms suggest that by this period Sequoia ancestors had already evolved a greater tracheid diameter that allowed it to reach the great heights characteristic of the modern Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood) and Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia).[ citation needed ]

Sequoia ancestors were not dominant in the tropical high northern latitudes, like Metasequoia , a redwood whose deciduous habit gave it a significant adaptive advantage in an environment with 3 months of continuous darkness. [3] However, there still was possibly prolonged range overlap between Sequoia and Metasequoia which could have led to hybridization events that created the modern hexaploid Sequoia sempervirens. [9] [10] See also the metastudy of the geologic history of the giant sequoia and the coast redwood. [11]

A general cooling trend by the late Eocene and Oligocene reduced the northern ranges of ancestral Sequoia. By the end of the Miocene and beginning of the Pliocene, Sequoia fossils were morphologically identical to the modern Sequoia sempervirens. [9] Continued cooling in the Pliocene meant that Sequoia, which is extremely intolerant to frost due to the high water content of its tissues, also became locally extinct in response to the extreme cooling of Europe and Asia. [12] Pollen sampling of sediments found in Hungary indicates the local extinction of genus Sequoia approximately 2.7 million years ago in the first part of the Pliocene. [13] In western North America it continued to move south through coastal Oregon and California, surviving due to the abundant rainfall and mild seasons. [12] The Sierra Nevada orogeny further isolated Sequoia because the snowy mountain peaks prevented eastward expansion. [12] The Pleistocene and Holocene distributions are likely nearly identical to the modern S. sempervirens distributions.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

Sequoia, Sequoya or Sequoyah refers to a type of tree in the cypress family which includes the redwood trees. By extension the name may refer to:

<i>Sequoiadendron giganteum</i> Species of tree native to North America

Sequoiadendron giganteum, also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood or Sierra redwood is a coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the most massive trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but are grown around the world.

<i>Metasequoia</i> Genus of conifers

Metasequoia, or dawn redwood, is a genus of fast-growing coniferous trees, one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. The living species Metasequoia glyptostroboides is native to Lichuan county in Hubei province, China. Although the shortest of the redwoods, it grows to at least 165 feet in height. Local villagers refer to the original tree from which most others derive as Shuǐshān (水杉), or "water fir", which is part of a local shrine. Since its rediscovery in 1944, the dawn redwood has become a popular ornamental, with examples found in various parks in a variety of countries.

<i>Metasequoia glyptostroboides</i> Species of conifer

Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus Metasequoia, one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now survives in the wild only in wet lower slopes and montane river and stream valleys in the border region of Hubei and Hunan provinces and Chongqing municipality in south-central China, notably in Lichuan county in Hubei. Although the shortest of the redwoods, it can grow to 167 ft (51 m) in height.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cupressaceae</span> Cypress family of conifers

Cupressaceae is a conifer family, the cypress, with worldwide distribution. The family includes 27–30 genera, which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecious trees and shrubs up to 116 m (381 ft) tall. The bark of mature trees is commonly orange- to red-brown and of stringy texture, often flaking or peeling in vertical strips, but smooth, scaly or hard and square-cracked in some species.

<i>Cryptomeria</i> Species of conifer in the family Cupressaceae

Cryptomeria is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae. It includes only one species, Cryptomeria japonica. It used to be considered by some to be endemic to Japan, where it is known as Sugi. The tree is called Japanese cedar or Japanese redwood in English. It has been extensively introduced and cultivated for wood production on the Azores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sequoyah</span> Cherokee polymath and creator of the Cherokee syllabary

Sequoyah, also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and neographer of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821, he completed his independent creation of the Cherokee syllabary, enabling reading and writing in Cherokee. His achievement was one of the few times in recorded history that an individual member of a pre-literate group created an original, effective writing system. His creation of the syllabary turned the Cherokee nation into one of the first North American Indigenous groups with a written language. Sequoyah was also an important representative for the Cherokee nation; he went to Washington, D.C., to sign two relocation-and-land-trading treaties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephan Endlicher</span> Austrian botanist and linguist

Stephan Friedrich Ladislaus Endlicher, also known as Endlicher István László, was an Austrian botanist, numismatist and Sinologist. He was a director of the Botanical Garden of Vienna.

<i>Athrotaxis</i> Genus of conifers

Athrotaxis is a genus of two to three species of conifers in the cypress family, Cupressaceae. The genus is endemic to western Tasmania, where they grow in high-elevation temperate rainforests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lost Monarch</span> 5th largest known living coast redwood when counting only the main stem

Lost Monarch is a coast redwood tree in Northern California that is 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at breast height, and 320 feet (98 m) in height. It is the world's fifth largest coast redwood in terms of wood volume.

<i>Sequoia sempervirens</i> Species of tree

Sequoia sempervirens is the sole living species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae. Common names include coast redwood, coastal redwood and California redwood. It is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living 1,200–2,200 years or more. This species includes the tallest living trees on Earth, reaching up to 115.9 m (380.1 ft) in height and up to 8.9 m (29 ft) in diameter at breast height. These trees are also among the longest-living trees on Earth. Before commercial logging and clearing began by the 1850s, this massive tree occurred naturally in an estimated 810,000 ha along much of coastal California and the southwestern corner of coastal Oregon within the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sequoioideae</span> Subfamily of coniferous trees (redwoods)

Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Cupressaceae, that range in the northern hemisphere. It includes the largest and tallest trees in the world. The trees in the subfamily are amongst the most notable trees in the world and are common ornamental trees.

Megaflora refers to an exceptionally large plant species. Examples of megaflora include the Sequoioideae of California and a number of extinct plant species from the Mesozoic.

<i>Sequoiadendron chaneyi</i> Extinct species of conifer

Sequoiadendron chaneyi is an extinct species of tree in the Cupressaceae genus Sequoiadendron. Known from Miocene fossils found in Nevada and California, S. chaneyi is the oldest species of Sequoiadendron. The common use of the name "sequoia" generally refers to Sequoiadendron giganteum, which occurs naturally only in the various groves that exist on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California. S. chaneyi is considered the probable direct ancestor to the extant Sequoiadendron giganteum.

<i>Sequoia affinis</i> Extinct species of conifer

Sequoia affinis is an extinct species of the genus Sequoia in the cypress family Cupressaceae.

<i>Sequoiadendron</i> Genus of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae

Sequoiadendron is a genus of evergreen trees, with two species, only one of which survives to the present:

<i>Metasequoia occidentalis</i> Extinct species of conifer

Metasequoia occidentalis is an extinct redwood species of the family Cupressaceae that is found as fossils throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is one of three extinct species of Metasequoia that are currently recognized as valid.

<i>Glyptostrobus europaeus</i> Extinct species of conifer

Glyptostrobus europaeus is an extinct conifer species of the family Cupressaceae that is found as fossils throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The sole living species of Glyptostrobus was described from China in 1926. The name of the genus comes from the Greek "glypto" meaning grooved or carved, and "strobilus" meaning cone. The species name "europaeus" refers to the fact that it was first described from Europe.

<i>Metasequoia heerii</i> Extinct species of conifer

Metasequoia heerii is an extinct redwood species of the family Cupressaceae that is found as fossils throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It is one of several proposed extinct species of Metasequoia that were previously referred to Sequoia.

<i>Taxodium dubium</i> Extinct species of conifer

Taxodium dubium is an extinct species of cypress in the genus Taxodium in the family Cupressaceae which lived from the Late Paleocene to the Pliocene in North America and Europe. The species was first described in 1823 by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg.

References

  1. 1 2 "Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2023-08-30.
  2. ↑ Biota of North America Program 2013 county distribution map
  3. 1 2 3 Richard Jagels & Maria A. Equiza (2005). "Competitive advantages of Metasequoia in warm high latitudes". In Ben A. LePage, Christopher James Williams & Hong Yang (ed.). The Geobiology and Ecology of Metasequoia. Topics in geobiology. Vol. 22. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. pp. 335–349. ISBN   1-4020-2631-5.
  4. ↑ Endlicher, Stephan (1847). Synopsis Coniferarum. Vol. 1847. St. Gallen: Scheitlin & Zollikofer.
  5. 1 2 Lowe, Gary D. (2012). "Endlicher's sequence: the naming of the genus Sequoia" (PDF). Fremontia. 40 (1 & 2): 25–35. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2014. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  6. ↑ Muleady-Mecham, Nancy E. (2017). "Endlicher and Sequoia: Determination of the Etymological Origin of the Taxon Sequoia". Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. 116 (2): 137–146. doi:10.3160/soca-116-02-137-146.1. S2CID   89925020.
  7. ↑ Lowe, Gary D. (2018). Debunking the Sequoia honoring Sequoyah Myth. Lowebros. ISBN   9781532384721.
  8. ↑ Ma, Qing-Wen; K. Ferguson, David; Liu, Hai-Ming; Xu, Jing-Xian (2020). "Compressions of Sequoia (Cupressaceae sensu lato) from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, Ningcheng, Inner Mongolia, China". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 1 (9): 1. doi:10.1007/s12549-020-00454-z. S2CID   227180592 . Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  9. 1 2 M. R. Ahuja & D. B. Neale (2002). "Origins of polyploidy in coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and relationship of coast redwood to other genera of Taxodiaceae" (PDF). Silvae Genetica . 51 (2–3): 93–100.
  10. ↑ Deborah L. Rogers (2000). "Genotypic diversity and clone size in old-growth populations of coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)". Canadian Journal of Botany . 78 (11): 1408–1419. doi:10.1139/cjb-78-11-1408.
  11. ↑ Lowe, Gary D. (2014). Geologic History of the Giant Sequoia (PDF). North American Research Group (NARG) Special Publication No. 1.
  12. 1 2 3 Snyder, James Arthur (1992). The ecology of Sequoia sempervirens: an addendum to "On the edge: nature's last stand for coast redwoods" (M.A. thesis). San Jose State University.
  13. ↑ Willis, K. J.; Kleczkowski, A.; Crowhurst, S. J. (February 1999). "124,000-year periodicity in terrestrial vegetation change during the late Pliocene epoch". Nature. 397 (6721): 686. Bibcode:1999Natur.397..685W. doi:10.1038/17783.
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