Along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California is one of nature’s true wonders. A Sequoia redwood tree known as “the President.” It stands almost two hundred and fifty feet tall and is over three thousand years old.

The tree is so big, in fact, that it has never been photographed in its entirety until now. Thanks to a team from National Geographic, one of the largest trees in the world has finally been captured for all to wonder at.

The National Geographic team took thirty two days and one hundred and twenty six separate photographs to capture The President. Stitched together, they created an amazing view of the thirty two hundred year old redwood.

Sequoia redwood trees consist of three subspecies, two of which are native to very specific parts of California and Oregon in the United States, and one smaller species in China. They are the largest and tallest growing trees on planet Earth, and live for thousands of years.

The tallest tree in the world is the Hyperion Tree, a sequoia sempervirens. It is located in the Redwoods National forest and measures 379 feet tall. It is estimated to be about seven to eight hundred years old, which means that it was a towering tree centuries before Columbus discovered the new world. In fact, it was a sapling during the dark ages of europe.

The largest tree in the world by volume is another specimen of the subspecies sequoia sempervirens, The General Sherman tree, found near Trinidad, California. This mammoth is 275 feet tall and has a circumference of… 

102 feet at the base. It is estimated to weigh 2100 tons. It is believed to be between 2300 and 2700 years old.

The three subspecies of redwood tree are sequoia sempervirens, which grows along the northwest coast of California, and for a few miles into Oregon, sequoia gigantium, which is only found on the western side of the Sierra Nevada range, and metasequoia, a species found only in Lichuan county, in the Hubei province of China.

While metasequoia is the smallest of the three subspecies, it still grows to at least 200 feet tall.

Redwood trees are conifers which means they produce cone shaped seed pods and have needles instead of leaves. They are evergreen trees that do not go dormant during winter seasons. Conifers include the sequoias, firs, cedars, cypress, juniper, pine, hemlocks, yews, and spruces.

They are commonly found in temperate and northern zones and can withstand harsh winters and brutal summers. They grow farther north in forests called taigas, and at higher altitudes, than other types of trees. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity than conifer forests,by volume, Coniferous forests make up the largest carbon sinks on the planet.

They are of huge economic importance as major sources of lumber and paper. Conifers also serve as a food source such as pine nuts. Juniper berries are also used to flavor gin.

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