Natural Object: Seeds

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow, but you know that.

And the Giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, of inland California — as distinct from the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens — comes from these little things. By volume, these Giants are the largest living thing on the planet. A superlative beast by any standard, in fact: can reach 3000 years in age, 325 feet in height, 32 feet in diameter. And yes, there is at least one in Brooklyn, a rather small one, in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but it does produce cones, which tend to find their way underfoot, and the cones, after a day or two, shed their seeds. There are also Giants at Wave Hill and the New York Botanical Garden, both in the Bronx, according to Ed Barnard’s New York City Trees, which notes that mature cones remain on the tree for twenty years before drying and releasing their seeds.

According to David Sibley, these trees depend on fire — which clears underbrush, lets the sunshine in, and provides an ashy soil — for reproduction. But because of fire-prevention, grazing, and other land-use changes, very few new wild, or non-cultivated, trees have sprouted in the last century.

Of course, if we consider the microscopic components of human reproduction, the size differential between seed and tree isn’t necessarily remarkable. But what is amazing is that these trees, and you and I, come from things so small. Even smaller things, actually, since the DNA within is what counts.