Two decades later, when the Pierce Fire moved through Sequoia National Forest, it burned old-growth trees. The dominant trees in coastal redwood forests range from several hundred years to over two thousand years. Large, down trees may lie on the forest floor, gradually decaying, for many hundreds of years. Fire-activated seeds. There is an activity I like to do with students to teach them about cones: I bring in a small redwood cone and a large sugar pine cone and ask the students which … To understand how this is even possible, you need to know about the numerous ways that redwoods can reproduce—some of which involve cloning themselves. The heat opens their seed cones, their seeds are released, the flames clear the earth for their germination. In good living conditions with a lot of sunlight, redwood seedlings grow quickly, more than a foot per year in some trees. https://www.hunker.com/12309290/facts-about-the-redwood-tree Perhaps the most amazing fire adaptation is that some species actually require fire for their seeds to sprout. Trees that originate from seeds do not experience rapid height growth until they are over 10 years of age. Bark – The bark of mature redwood trees can grow at least a foot thick, creating a great protective shield from fires. Snags are another characteristic feature of an old-growth forest. Lodgepole pines, ubiquitous across much of the West, are one of the first species to grow after a fire because of their serotinous cones. Our Eucalyptus trees similarly need fire to reproduce, but rely on smaller grass and shrub based fires to produce the heat necessary to activate their seeds. This helps prevent fire from getting to the more easily burned sapwood behind the bark. “Fire is a natural part of the redwood ecosystem,” says Anthony Ambrose, a forest ecologist and redwood expert. As opposed to serotinous cones, which protect enclosed seeds during a fire, the actual seeds of many plants in fire-prone environments need fire, directly or indirectly, to germinate. Some plants, such as the lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia, have serotinous cones or fruits that are completely sealed with resin.These cones/fruits can only open to release their seeds after the heat of a fire has physically melted the resin. These large, erect, dead trees may remain standing for decades, or even centuries. While lesser trees blaze around them, the giant sequoias stand virtually unscathed by the flames. During a recent hike in the Berkeley hills with a friend, the topic of cones came up. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/shirley/sec7.htm Eric Draper/AP. 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