Buckfastleigh - Kingswood (Devon)

Coast Redwood - February 2023

Thanks to Robert for these photographs of a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempirens) in Kingswood. He wrote: "There are some trees near where I live that I think could be sequoia. I wanted to see if I could find any record or history of these trees. They are in Kingswood on the edge of Buckfastleigh in Devon. A simple search reveals nothing." Robert included a bag that is approx 45cms across in one of the photographs, to illustrate the size of the tree. The tree certainly looks like a whopper! Robert also wrote; "I first came across the usual soft bark on a tree when a young teen (in the 1960s) and had a Saturday morning gardening job at Theydon Priory on the edge of Theydon Bois in Essex. Although the bark of the trees in Kingswood are not as soft as I remember from the gardening job I had." The tree you recall from the 1960s with soft bark could well have been a Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum), as although the bark looks similar, being fibrous and softer than many trees, that of the Giant Redwood is quite a bit softer still than the Coast Redwood.

Coast Redwood - February 2023