This little guy is a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).  He’s about 6 months old, and a whole five-and-a-half inches tall!

He has the potential to live for more than 2,000 years, and grow to over 350 feet tall.  

Sequoia sempervirens are the tallest tree in the world.  (The tallest known tree, called Hyperion, is 379.7 feet tall.)  These magnificent trees grow only in a narrow band in Northern California and Southern Oregon.  

There are two other species of redwood:  

• Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) – these are the most massive, though not the tallest trees in the world 
• Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostrobides) – a much smaller species, native to China, and often used in landscaping

Coast redwoods are conifers…  they sprout from seed contained in cones.  A seedling may grow more than a foot in its first year.  

Learn more about the redwoods!

About the Name

Rocky is short for Rockefeller.

John D. Rockefeller was one of the founders of the Save The Redwoods League, in 1917.

In 1931, he helped to purchase 9,000 acres of old-growth redwood forest from the Pacific Lumber Company, and donated it to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park.  The “Rockefeller Forest” is the largest continuous stand of old-growth coastal redwoods in the world.

He, his son, and his grandson continued to make generous contributions to preserve  the redwoods throughout their lives.

We plan on watching this seedling grow for many years…  when it outgrows its pot, we’ll transplant it into a permanent home.