# Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

> Giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum: its height and zones, how fast it grows, how far from a house to plant it, and the natives we grow for the same ground.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/species/giant-sequoia/

![Four giant sequoia trunks with ridged cinnamon-red bark standing among smaller conifers on a needle-strewn forest floor](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/species/giant-sequoia-1000.jpg?v=18213311 "Giant sequoias in the Placer Grove, the northernmost grove of the species, in California in May 2012. The oldest cross-dated tree was 3,266 years old.")
*Photo: John Cloud, NOAA Central Library, [Public domain](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAmer0244_%289715942557%29.jpg) ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAmer0244_%289715942557%29.jpg))*

Large tree, 40 to 120 feet where planted, zones 6 to 9; full sun or part shade; average ground.

We do not grow giant sequoia, and it is not in our shop. This page gathers what our tools say about it and the natives we grow for the same ground.

## At a glance

| Fact | Giant Sequoia |
| --- | --- |
| Other names | Sierra redwood, giant redwood, Wellingtonia, sequoia, mammoth tree |
| Form | Large tree |
| Height, feet | 40 to 120 where planted; up to 316 in its native stands |
| Spread, feet | Up to 50 |
| Zones | 6 to 9 |
| Sun | Full sun or part shade |
| Soil moisture | Average ground |
| Growth | Fast |
| Leaves | Evergreen |
| Traits | Wildlife value, winter interest |
| Pollen | April to May |
| Fruit | Cones, August to September |
| First crop | 10 to 20 years (large crops from about 150 to 200) |
| Pollination | One bears; a second improves the crop. Each tree carries both male and female cones and the wind carries the pollen; trees mostly cross with their neighbors but sometimes pollinate themselves. |
| Lifespan | Typically lives 2,000 to 3,000 years, and the oldest dated one reached 3,266. Only a tiny share of trees has ever been ring-counted or cross-dated. |
| Black walnut | Not named on the Morton Arboretum's lists |
| Ground | Rich moist slopes and rocky ground |
| Native in | 1 state |

Giant sequoia is native in 1 state: [California](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CA). The states are the USDA PLANTS Database's records, with the native range read from Silvics of North America and the Fire Effects Information System.

## What our tools say

- [How fast it grows and how big it gets, by site](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the growth estimator
- [Whether it suits your zone, sun and soil](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the planting-site check
- [How far from a house, wires and a septic field](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree): the planting-distance tool
- [What grows with it in the wild and in a yard](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the companion species tool
- [When to plant it where you live](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the planting-window tool
- [When it sheds pollen and bears cones, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=giant-sequoia): the bloom and fruit calendar
- [How to sow its seed, with dates for your place](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the seed sowing planner
- [How many to plant for a crop of seed](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=giant-sequoia:2): the pollination planner
- [Whether one you have can be moved, and what the move takes](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the transplant planner
- [How old one is, from its trunk](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-age/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the tree age calculator
- [How a big one scores against the champion trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/big-tree/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia): the big-tree measurer

## For the same ground, we grow

- [Chokecherry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/chokecherry/index.html.md) (*Prunus virginiana*): small tree, 20 to 30 feet, zones 2 to 10. Shares rocky ground in the wild.
- [More natives for this ground in the tree finder](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/tree-finder/index.html.md?size=large-tree&sun=full&moisture=average)
- [Every companion of giant sequoia in the companion species tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=giant-sequoia)

## Read from

Its figures come from Silvics of North America, the Forest Service's Fire Effects Information System, the Woody Plant Seed Manual, the USDA PLANTS Database, NC State Extension, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Oregon State University's Landscape Plants, Cal Poly's SelecTree, Calscape, the Wildflower Center, the Gymnosperm Database, Rocky Mountain Tree-Ring Research and the International Tree-Ring Data Bank.