Over the years, I’ve read numerous descriptions comparing trunks,  claiming coast redwoods taper and giant sequoias don’t. Did those people just drive by without looking, and went on their merry way? The truth is that coast redwood and giant sequoia both have trunks that taper; and both have trunks that don’t (or barely) taper. I’ll give an easy example to compare for giant sequoia. Do an image search with keywords “congress + trail + senate + giant + sequoia”. Find the photos and notice the obvious trunk taper of the Senate cluster. I suggested that one because a good number of photographers don’t tilt their lens upward which changes taper.  Plenty of the Senate photos are taken level or straight on.

Now compare those images and similar to this coast redwood.  This photo was taken aimed level to prevent taper distortion. I don’t think this trunk has any taper at all. It may even have some reverse taper. Continue after image …

 

 

There are people near the base for scale. Aside from lower flare near the roots, lack of taper is obvious. The next image shows a couple of coast redwood trunks. A big one to the left with taper and a medium trunk to the right with minimal taper. Chris can be spotted in a green shirt for scale. Continue after image …

 

 

Likewise, the giant sequoias in the mountains have plenty of trunks with taper and other trunks that barely taper. It’s worth interjecting that zero-taper and reverse-taper trunks are not very common but the ones I’ve seen are in the coast redwoods. When both species are planted in large landscapes or parks, the coast redwoods often have the least taper, and giant sequoias typically develop the most taper.

On a closing note. this week’s redwood page update was Hyperion, one of the tallest known. For those interested, take a moment to review Hyperion Coast Redwood 380′