Llanfyllin - The Old Station (Powys)

Giant Redwood 2010

Giant Redwood 2014

Thanks to Zarena who sent the above fabulous photographs of her Giant Redwood tree and wrote to say, "We moved into our house The Old Station, Llanfyllin, Powys eleven years ago and have a fabulous specimen in the garden. Apparently it was struck by lightning around 20 - 25 years ago and lost part of the top. I measured the girth at 150 cm above the ground and it is 6.62m. I can't begin to estimate how high it is, probably around 30m, but that is a really rough guess. The great thing about it is how most of the way round the branches touch the ground, most trees seem to loose the lower limbs, is this a sign of quite a young tree? A tree surgeon who had a look at some of our trees said he thought it might have an underground water source nearby, we are nearly at the bottom of a river valley on very stoney ground." With regard to the lower branches, I think this is more to do with how crowded the area around the tree is, I believe that if they are shaded by other trees the Giant Redwood will discard its lower branches. Sometimes throughout the life of a tree people have cut the lower branches away to reveal the trunk or just to get access to the area under the tree. Personally I think they look magnificent when they are older and have retained them because they have a prehistoric feel about them when you walk around the lower limbs. Click here to see an extreme case where the lower limbs have actually rooted as they've rested on the ground. * * * Update - April 2020 * * * Zarena wrote again to send the height measurement of her lovely Redwood tree, she said it measured 26.5 m last Spring (2019). She also had some interesting news, "I have had a strange occurrence that I've not seen it in the 17 years I've been its custodian (see photo below). The 4th clump from the left is definitely albino foliage. This photo was taken a while ago and it hasn't browned in the normal way at all. I can't see any blond spots in the tree, but can't see much from the ground! Have you seen this phenomenon before?" This is something I have never seen either. Tom Stapleton studies this phenomenon in Coast Redwood in America, he has a website called: Chimera Redwoods. However, I have not heard of any albino foliage in Giant Redwood, perhaps someone might write and tell us more information about this effect.

Giant Redwood Albino foliage 2020 (click on the image to zoom in)