Coast Redwood
Coast redwoods occupy a narrow Pacific fog belt, where immense height, canopy moisture, and vigorous resprouting build forests found nowhere else.
Artwork inspired by Eyvind Earle
Coast redwoods grow naturally from central California into far southwestern Oregon, usually where maritime fog moderates summer drought. They can exceed 350 feet, reproduce from seed and sprouts, and support complex canopy soils, plants, and animals high above the ground.
Logging removed most old growth, while fire, drought, roads, and climate change continue to shape surviving forests. Fog is helpful but not magical irrigation; roots, streams, soil, and watershed history all matter. Visitors should remain on durable trails, avoid stepping into basal hollows, and compare leaf form and setting before calling every large conifer a redwood.
- Record
- Tallest living tree species
- Range
- California to southwest Oregon
- Recovery
- Can sprout from trunk and base
Quick guide
- Look up
- Straight columns carry crowns far overhead.
- Look down
- Flat needles and tiny cones confirm identity.
Separate the coast redwood from giant sequoia
- Place
- Natural stands follow the cool Pacific fog belt rather than the Sierra.
- Form
- Very tall, comparatively slender trunks rise in dense forest.
- Leaf
- Most lower shoots carry flat two-ranked needles.
- Cone
- Small woody cones are dramatically smaller than giant-sequoia cones.
Good to know
Coast redwood is taller and coastal; giant sequoia is bulkier and native to Sierra groves. Ornamental plantings outside those ranges do not redefine the natural distribution.
Notice these
- Towering straight trunk
- Reddish fibrous bark
- Flat needle sprays