The Giant Sequoia of the Taconera

Both of California's great redwoods grow within a few steps of each other just inside the Taconera, and Pamplona's 2010 book of old and singular trees sends you there to compare them. On the right of the main entrance stands the giant sequoia the book measured. Close by are two more giant sequoias and a coast redwood. The difference is easy to see once you know where to look. A giant sequoia carries short, scale-like needles pressed along the shoot. A coast redwood has flat needles set in two rows, more like a yew. The giant sequoia is the bulkier species. The coast redwood is the taller. This one is 4.26 metres round at chest height and 26 metres tall, on a single straight leader, with a crown 12.9 metres across. That is respectable rather than enormous. Pamplona's best-known sequoia stands about 600 metres east in the garden of the Palacio de Navarra, almost seven metres round, and that one has been in the city since 1855. The Taconera has been looking after trees for a long time. The council appointed a guard for its newly planted trees in 1558, and by 1564 it was paying a caretaker 20 pounds a year to look after them. In December the book records flocks of starlings from northern Europe coming in at dawn and dusk to roost in the park. Nobody has dated this sequoia. If you know when it was planted, tell us.