Trees and Plants

The most famous arboreal resident of the park is of course the impressive giant sequoia trees themselves.

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Trees and Plants Details

Just as with the animal life in the park, extreme differences in elevation lead to extreme differences in fauna. The most famous arboreal resident of the park is of course the impressive giant sequoia trees themselves, which can grow to 52,508 cubic feet (in the case of the world's largest tree, the General Sherman Tree) and live up to 3,000 years. The General Grant Tree is the world's second largest living thing at 46,608 cubic feet. In terms of height, the largest of these trees is the equivalent of a 26-story building. Other than the sequoia groves, the park supports a variety of environments from hot, dry lowlands along the western boundary to snow-covered alpine high country. There are over 1,200 species of vascular plants within the park, including communities of montane forests, alpine habitats, oak woodlands, and chaparral. The mixed-conifer forests on the lower and middle slopes of the Sierra Nevada are especially diverse, containing ponderosa pine, incense-cedar, white fir, sugar pine, and scattered groves of giant sequoia. Red fir forests grow in pure stands in the mid- to upper-elevation forest from 7,000 to 9,000 feet, giving way to mixed forests of red fir and lodgepole pine at higher elevations.

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