Giant Sequoia

A coniferous tree native to a narrow band of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California, and the most massive living tree species on Earth by trunk volume, though not the tallest or the oldest. Giant sequoias can live more than 3,000 years and grow bark up to a meter thick, which, along with a chemical resistant to insects and fungal decay, gives mature trees strong protection from fire; the species in fact depends on periodic low-intensity fire, whose heat opens its cones and clears competing vegetation so its seeds can reach bare mineral soil. Decades of fire suppression in the twentieth century reduced this natural regeneration, and unusually severe modern wildfires have killed a meaningful share of the largest old-growth trees in a handful of recent fire seasons.