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Reaching more than 97.5 meters (320 ft) into the sky, the California Redwood, also known as the Coast Redwood or Sequoia Sempervirens, holds the title of the tallest tree in the world.
These woody wonders are thought to have existed as far back as the dinosaurs, though the oldest living tree officially listed dates back to around 2,200 years, according to Sempervirens.org.
But they’re not just tall. These trees are seriously sturdy. Some are as wide as 6.7 meters (22 feet), and the bark alone can grow up to 30 centimetres (1 foot) thick! That’s some serious armour.
This thick bark and massive trunk make these trees virtually invincible, with no known threats from bugs, birds, or even fires.
They even intertwine their roots to help their towering trunks remain stable in high winds or when coastal rains saturate the soil.
Despite this, humans nearly wiped them out over the past 150 years. Only five percent of the oldest redwoods remain as miners and settlers used many of them to build California’s coastal cities around the time of the Gold Rush.
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