Redwoods National Park
The Redwoods aren't red, they're gray. The wood inside is red, but the bark is gray. The Redwoods tower over all, casting a perpetual twilight on the forest below. Redwood trees can grow over 300 feet, and be up two thousand years old. New trees will often sprout from dead trees. Multiple offshoots sometimes sprout along the trunk of a downed tree. As the parent tree rots away, a row of perfectly lined up new trees remains. They can also sprout from the edge of the stump, leaving a ring of young tress huddled together.
The Redwood forest are a temperate rain forest. A real "hack you way through with a machete" jungle. The forest floor is covered with a rough carpet of leafy green shrubs. The pacific winds drop their moisture as they climb over the coastal mountains, resulting in a rainy side, and a dry side. This excess of moisture yields a fairyland of brilliant green.
In the early morning your breath condenses in front of you as the forest air
refuses to hold any more moisture. Clouds of moisture droplets, and occasionally
a raindrop are visible if they are caught in one of the rare shafts of
light stabbing down to the forest floor. The moisture laden air yields
an explosion of plant life. "Euriptes", or air plants have no
roots at all- but drape themselves over other plants, absorbing water,
and nutrients from the air. Some trees are so covered in hanging "air
moss" that they appear be decorated with green tinsel.
Redwoods National Park is located on the California Coast just below the
Oregon border.
Other Redwoods Links
- Vadim Aristov's- Majestic Nature: Redwoods.
All images © John Donohue, 1995,1996