Existing comment:
SEQUOIA TREE CROSS-SECTION
circa 500-1000 years old
No visit to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California is complete without viewing the displays of old growth sequoia slabs harvested from dead trees and prepared so that the rings are visible. Besides the age of the tree, these specimens record changes in temperature and patterns of disease, fires, flood, and human damage. Prepared slabs can be up to 30 feet in diameter, weigh 6 tons or more, and be up to 3,000 years old. Sequoia trees are native to the western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, but have since been successfully cultivated in Europe and Oceana. |