Grant's Grove in the Clouds Long Sleeve T-Shirt

Grants Grove is located in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks. The Grove surrounds the General Grant sequoia. The width at the base of the tree is 40 feet across and the tree is nearly 2400 years old. The trees in this image are mature giant sequoias or small juvenile sequoias, each fighting for a place in the canopy of this sequoia forest. The three large trees are likely to be about 1200 years of age while the skinny trees with green lichen growing on the bark are in the 500 to 750 year old range. These numbers are difficult to digest while the mature giant sequoias simply defy description.

Giant sequoias can live for over 3,000 years, outlasting all of their mixed conifer forest neighbors. What is it about giant sequoias that allows them to persist through millennia? Surprisingly, a major factor in in the longevity of giant sequoias is a chemical called tannin. The tannin, present in high concentrations in sequoia bark, gives the sequoia resistance to rot, boring insects,...

Forty-eight of my most popular images (based on views and sales) are found on the front page of my images gallery. Others love them, perhaps you will too! The second page of my images gallery displays my most recent images (unless one or more made the front page and was replaced by a more popular image.) Don't forget to look there and beyond too. _____________________________ I divide my time between Chicago in the summer and Phoenix in the winter. The first hint of cold, generally sometime in late October I flee the dreadful weather and head to Arizona. Conversely, when the temperature reaches 105 degrees for five consecutive days I run from the dreadful heat back to the humidity of the midwest. That, my friends, explains the split...