Giant redwood trees tower above the others in UK woodland (Picture: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)
The world’s largest trees are thriving in the UK, and now outnumber the remaining ones in their native habitat.
An estimated 500,000 giant redwoods are growing across the United Kingdom, compared to just 80,000 remaining in their native California.
The amazing trees can live up to 2,000 years, and in California, one tree was measured at nearly 300 feet tall.
A new study alongside Kew’s Botanic Garden at Wakehurst, Sussex, has looked into why the giant redwoods are thriving in the UK climate.
One of the authors, Dr Phil Wilkes, said: ‘Half a million trees is quite a lot to go under the radar until now, but it’s when you start looking for them in the landscape, and compiling these datasets, that you realise how many there are.’
The tree species was first brought to the UK during the Victorian era, when they were seen as a status symbol and placed on sprawling estates.
Endangered giant redwood trees are thriving in the UK (Picture: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)
The towering giant sequoias can soar as high as 90 metres (295 feet) and live for up to 3,000 years (Picture: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP)
Nearly 5,000 of the trees were sampled and sent to be studied at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex.
Laser technology was used to scan the trees, providing their heights and weight without having to cut down the giants.
And the research found that the trees aren’t just thriving in the UK – they’re growing just as fast as their Californian counterparts.
Dr Wilkes added: ‘Where they grow in California, it’s cooler and moister than you would typically envisage California to be. And we have a reasonably similar climate here – it’s very wet and they need the moisture to grow.’
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In California, the ancient redwood forests are currently under threat from climate change, as hotter and drier weather moves into the region.
Yet some scientists think increasing temperatures and carbon in the atmosphere might not effect the trees as much as previously thought, as the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere seemed to benefit the plants.
The National Park Service said: ‘In fact, since the 1970s they have been benefiting from increased carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere.
‘Old-growth redwoods have been measured as absorbing more carbon while putting on more mass.’
But the UK-based study seems to show that the giant redwoods will continue to thrive in the UK, even if their counterparts in California could struggle.
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