The Wilhelma sequoia grove (Mammutbaumwaeldchen)

A king asked for a little seed and got a pound of it. In 1864 King Wilhelm I of Württemberg ordered giant sequoia seed from America. As the Wilhelma tells it, he asked for a lot, meaning a small lot of about 15 grams, and the Americans sent a pound. The seedlings went out to parks and woods across the kingdom, and the Wilhelma counts this grove as where that seed's story starts. Germany's largest sequoia, 57 metres tall in the Rems-Murr district, grew from the same seed. The grove behind the main entrance holds about 70 trees, which the garden puts at about 160 years old. Its tallest measures 38.6 metres by the Wilhelma's own figure. Local newspapers have printed other numbers over the years: a tallest of 37 metres, a thickest trunk of 4.2 or 4.7 metres round, fewer trees. We carry the garden's figures and leave the girth open. The grove has not had an easy recent run. Climate change and drought have stressed it, and the Wilhelma has laid water lines and hydrants, aerated the soil and buried moisture sensors at four depths, saying the trees do not develop optimally. Since 2023 one sequoia at the edge of the grove has a circular wooden platform round it, so you can walk all the way round and put a hand on the bark. The rest are left alone to protect their roots. Entry is paid, and the pin marks the garden rather than the grove.