AMAZING FACTS

The tallest tree is a gymnosperm 112 meters (367 feet, 6 in.), or five stories higher than the Statue of Liberty. It is a Mendocino Tree, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) found at Montgomery State Reserve near Ukiah, California, USA. It is estimated to be over 1000 years old. The tree was last measured in September 1998, and was also found to have a diameter of 3.14 m. (10 ft. 4 in.). It was declared the tallest tree in 1996.

The name of this plant " Sequoia sempervirens" is named after a First Nation American called Sequoyah, who invented the Cherokee alphabet.When Europeans first landed in North America, they found an industrious race of warrior people called Tsalagi living in what is now eastern Tennessee and the Carolinas. The whites called them "Cherokee." From this nation would come a man whose extraordinary abilities would greatly serve and protect his people. His name was Sequoyah..
At first, Sequoyah conceived of a pictographic language (similar to Chinese) where words or concepts are symbolized with graphics. He quickly realized that such a system would require a large number of symbols. When he worked, Sequoyah was harassed by those who did not appreciate what it would mean to the Tsalagi people. Sequoyah then began to experiment with a phonetic alphabet where symbols represented individual sounds rather than concepts or things. This was much more manageable. He set to work and discovered that there are 85 vowel and consonant sounds in the Tsalagi language. Sequoyah assigned a character to each of these. This was the core of the Tsalagi or Cherokee alphabet.

Although Sequoia sempervirens is currently the tallest tree, it is not the tallest tree in history. A Eucalyptus regnans at Mt. Baw Baw, Victoria, Australia, is believed to have measured 143 m.(470 ft.) in 1885. Formerly, another Australian eucalyptus, at Watts River, Victoria, almost certainly had been over 150 m. (492 ft.)