Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) J.Buchholz
Wellingtonia; Big-tree; Sierra redwood; Giant redwood
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) J.Buchholz: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Lindl.) J.T.Buchholz.
56 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Sequoiadendron giganteum (also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood or Wellingtonia) is a species of coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the largest trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but have been introduced, planted, and grown around the world.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sequoiadendron giganteum", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,047 mm of 1,343 mm) falls in November to March, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in February, March, April, December and January, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.
Rain
1,343 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,047 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 245 mm, driest month August at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 704 mm to 1,547 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,354 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,343 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -10.0 °C, the absolute minimum -19.1 °C, 5,002 frost nights in 44 years, 113.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.8 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range -6.9 °C to 1.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 45 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +46 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 7 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec to 26 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from -4 °C in Jan and Dec to 12 °C in Jul and Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 1,343 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 72 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -19.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 7 / 3–11 | 7 / 3–12 | 9 / 5–14 | 13 / 8–17 | 18 / 13–21 | 23 / 19–27 | 26 / 22–30 | 26 / 22–30 | 23 / 19–26 | 17 / 13–21 | 11 / 7–15 | 7 / 3–11 |
| Night °C | -4 / -7–1 | -3 / -6–2 | -2 / -5–3 | 0 / -3–5 | 4 / 1–8 | 8 / 6–12 | 12 / 9–15 | 12 / 9–15 | 9 / 6–13 | 4 / 2–9 | -1 / -3–4 | -4 / -7–1 |
| Rain mm | 245 / 138–274 | 228 / 130–251 | 204 / 97–237 | 113 / 48–134 | 56 / 19–69 | 18 / 8–22 | 8 / 2–12 | 6 / 4–9 | 22 / 11–27 | 73 / 28–94 | 148 / 71–190 | 222 / 132–262 |
| DLI | 18 / 15–21 | 24 / 21–27 | 34 / 30–36 | 43 / 40–46 | 49 / 47–51 | 53 / 52–54 | 53 / 51–53 | 48 / 46–49 | 40 / 38–42 | 30 / 27–33 | 21 / 17–24 | 16 / 13–19 |
| RH % | 55 / 52–57 | 57 / 55–59 | 58 / 56–60 | 56 / 53–58 | 54 / 50–56 | 49 / 47–52 | 46 / 43–50 | 45 / 43–49 | 47 / 45–50 | 50 / 48–52 | 53 / 51–55 | 54 / 52–56 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Ernesto Fernandez Polcuch, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nicole, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) squirrel759, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Ceanothus parvifolius Littleleaf ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Michael A. Thaibinh
Pinus lambertiana Sugar pine Photo: CC BY, Max Miley
Rosa bridgesii Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Tim Messick
Diplacus torreyi Torrey's monkeyflower Photo: CC BY, Deb Kemp
Leptosiphon ciliatus Whiskerbrush Photo: CC0, author not stated
Ribes roezlii Sierra gooseberry Photo: CC0, author not statedNames & registers
Also known as Americus gigantea; Gigantabies wellingtoniana; Sequoia gigantea; Sequoia gigantea f. pendula; Sequoia gigantea subsp. barronii-pendula and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 2684120 is Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) J.T.Buchholz; the page links Kew's Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) J.Buchholz, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 92 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (72 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 17 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.50_-118.750, lapse-corrected +46 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) J.Buchholz (the item's: IPNI 677175-1, POWO 234727-2)wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 83 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.