22/04/2026
1. The redwood is the world’s tallest tree. Many redwoods grow to heights of more than 90 metres, the tallest one in the world stands at 116 metres (20 metres taller than Big Ben!)
2. Redwoods are Climate Change Heroes. Studies show that redwoods capture more carbon dioxide than any other tree on Earth. Thanks to their large size, long lifespan and rot-resistant wood, redwood trees can pull and hold at least 3 times more carbon from the air than the average tree thereby cleaning more air and helping to keep temperatures from rising.
3. Redwood roots intertwine with the roots of neighbouring trees. It’s a classic case of “teamwork makes the dream work.” These intertwined roots help the trees support one another in storms and high winds, forming a literal and figurative community in the forest. Redwoods can often be seen growing in circles, known as “fairy rings” because they sprouted from the roots of a parent tree. The parent tree helps to nourish the sprouts with water and sugars while they grow. When the parent trees die, the young redwoods continue to grow in the circle shielding, stabilising, and nourishing each other through their roots.
4. Entire ecosystems can live within redwood branches high off the ground. Because redwoods can grow so large their shed leaves collect together with dust and water on their branches and eventually become soil mats that create mini-ecosystems. Hundreds of plants have been found living in the canopies of redwoods.
5. Redwoods can make it rain. A redwood’s leaves can both absorb moisture from fog in the air and can also condense fog into drops and rain them down to soak the soil around them (thankfully it’s not very foggy in West Sussex).
6. Almost as Old as the Dinosaurs - the earliest redwoods showed up on Earth shortly after the dinosaurs – before flowers, birds and humans. Redwoods have been around for about 240 million years compared to about 200,000 years for “modern” humans. However, in just the last 150 years, human impacts have drastically reduced the number of these ancient trees with only 5% of old-growth redwood forests remaining.
