The last word on trees.

I planted a test-run of the seeds that came enclosed in the Save the Dates on Sept. 12 of last year. About a month later I had some success, with one redwood and one sequoia nosing about two centimeters out of the soil — just two out of 50 seeds planted. Such a low germination rate makes some sense if you consider that a single redwood cone contains 150 to 200 seeds. If they all sprouted and grew to adulthood, the world would be overrun by the giant trees (though there is a high probability that humans could still log them quick enough to drive them to extinction). Another factor that may have played into the limited success of those of you who tried to grow the Save-the-Date seeds is that they could have been collected from young redwoods, which tend to produce cones full of infertile seeds until they reach 200 years of age or so.

Anyhow, after eight months, my saplings are doing well, as are the two sequoias Sarah's mom managed to get going. The two images at right are of mine. For context, check out the Oct. 6 blog entry.

And, for any of you who haven't passed out from boredom or been driven to click away by the irrelevance of this post — I stumbled across a pretty interesting site operated by the National Parks Service that discusses redwood reproduction.

Yep, that ought to just about drive away the last of this blog's tiny, yet devoted, following.

Jason