The layered redwood of the Old Arboretum

This giant redwood is making copies of itself. Its lower branches bent until they touched the ground, put down roots and grew up as new trees, so what you see at the edge of this copse is one tall redwood ringed by its own offspring. Foresters call it layering. The main stem is big enough to earn the visit on its own. Redwood World measured it in September 2010 at 42.4 metres tall, with a trunk 6.78 metres round at chest height. Two metres away stands a second stem, 41.2 metres and 6.45 metres round, close enough that we treat the two as one stop. What nobody has written down is when it was planted. The Old Arboretum's oldest redwoods at the gateway are documented from 1856, but there is no record that ties this one to that date, and we will not borrow it. If you know when this group went in, tell us. All the figures come from that one 2010 survey, so expect the tree to be somewhat taller now. Look for the layered skirt, a redwood that has quietly started a small wood of its own.