Coast Redwood

Description:

Coast redwoods have a conical crown, with horizontal to slightly drooping branches. The bark is very thick, up to 30 cm (12 in), and quite soft, fibrous with a bright red-brown when freshly exposed (hence the name redwood), weathering darker. The root system is composed of shallow, wide-spreading lateral roots. The leaves are variable, being 15–25 millimetres (0.59–0.98 in) long and flat on young trees and shaded shoots in the lower crown of old trees, and scale-like, 5–10 millimetres (0.20–0.39 in) long on shoots in full sun in the upper crown of older trees; there is a full range of transition between the two extremes. They are dark green above, and with two blue-white stomatal bands below. Leaf arrangement is spiral, but the larger shade leaves are twisted at the base to lie in a flat plane for maximum light capture (http://en.wikipedia.org)

Notes:

As of 2012, the coast redwood "Hyperion," located in Redwood National Park, California, United States is the tallest measured tree in the world. It towers an incredible 115.56 m over the ground. (en.wikipedia.org)