Video: When the trees were big
2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55
More than ten thousand different types of trees grow on the globe. Each of them has its own name. And only one of them bears the name of a person. This tree is a sequoia.
A bloody struggle was fought between the indigenous population of America and the white conquerors. The Indians could only oppose the terrible firearms of strangers with arrows and spears. But bondage is worse than death. This is what the legendary leader of the Iroquois Sequa said to his fellow tribesmen. He invented writing for his people, he took care of the education of the Indians, he also became the head of the warriors united by him and led them into battle against foreign invaders. Sequa died in one of the unequal battles. But the people resisted the strangers for a long time. In honor of the freedom-loving Sequoia, the Indians named the tallest, most hardy tree in their land.
The conquerors did everything possible to make the proud Indians forget their history, tried to erase heroic legends and translations from their memory about the former independence of their native land. That is why the mighty sequoia cut the eyes of the conquerors. After all, by its name it reminded of the victorious leader Sekwe! The Europeans began to rename the tree. First they named it california pine … Then they came up with the name “ Mammoth tree". Both names did not catch on. Later, English botanists named the tree in honor of their commander Wellington " wellingtonia". The Americans were outraged and named the tree " washingtonia". Of course, none of these names received distribution, the Indians did not recognize them. The proud name of Sekva remained inseparable from the hero tree.
Why has there been a debate about the name of the tree for so long? Because sequoia is a truly unique tree. Its height is over one hundred and forty meters. In coverage, some trees reach twenty-six meters, the weight of such a trunk exceeds a thousand tons. Sequoia is a long-lived tree. The age of some specimens, according to scientists, reaches six thousand years … For the life of such a tree has passed all ancient, medieval and modern history of mankind … And they are ancient because they are not afraid of any dangers: they are so powerful that they can withstand any winds; their wood and bark contain tannins and other substances that protect against fungal decay and grinder beetles, and their thick bark does not burn even in a fire.
Grass fires are even beneficial for sequoias: they destroy competitors, help buds open and create favorable conditions for young growth, which is bathed in sunlight and fertilized with nutritious ash. A mature tree can be struck by lightning - but, as a rule, this is not fatal. This is how the giants live century after century, getting older - and more and more. Of course, there is one danger that lurks in big trees - deforestation. How many giant sequoias fell under the blows of axes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries!
Why did they cut down sequoia in America, after all, this is a whole property? It is believed that the forest was cut down because of the timber, but this is not the case. The wood of the ancient giants turned out to be so fragile that when hitting the ground, the trunks often falling apartinto pieces, and the surviving parts were not at all suitable for construction, and after all, it was possible to build from smaller specimens, and from another forest.
The fact is that old trees are information storage, database, hard disk, in modern parlance. Everything that happens on the planet, trees write down to your information portal … And apparently someone needed to block this access. They left a few smaller giants and formed a national park.
The most interesting thing is that Sequoia Park is only a tiny part of those giant forests that existed about 7500 years ago. But there were more hemp left, and were scattered over the whole planet. These are the so-called "table" mountains, scientists all over the world call mountains with a flat, as if cut the top, the so-called "table". But some believe that these are not mountains, but fossils of ancient giant trees. This version is unpopular in the scientific world, but we know how conservative this "world" is. But even with a cursory comparison, the similarities are guessed.
Few people know, but there is a museum of petrified ancient trees. This open-air museum is located in the state Arizona, and called Petrified Forest (petrified forest). The exhibits date back to the Triassic period of the Mesozoic era, i.e. about 225 million years ago. They are a truly amazing sight. The outer part of the tree trunk is familiar to our eye, but inside the tree is semiprecious stones! The forest giants have turned into precious strata of agates, jasper, carnelian, onyx and amethyst … Jasper gives a red hue, lilac comes from amethyst, and agate is the most unpredictable, from which all sorts of different colors are obtained.
Interestingly, these trees do not look broken, but sawn, and this happened before they hardened, and they are also small in relation to sequoias, some believe that these are the branches of giant trees, since 225 million years ago such small trees did not exist. And those trees were so gigantic that the California sequoias next to them look like a match.
There are many mysteries. You just need to want to unravel it.
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