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Shortly before his death, 150 years ago, King William I of Wurttemberg gave the royal forestry commission in the country an unusual mission, the preparation and realization of which, lead to a diversity of results which was without parallel.
The discovery of the giant sequoia trees in North America in the middle of the 19th century caused a sensation, which King William I as a nature lover took as an opportunity to have seeds of these exotic trees sent directly from California to the temperate greenhouse of the current Wilhelma in Stuttgart in order to raise thousands of young trees. The giant trees were known at this time in Wurttemberg as Wellingtonia.
The young trees were then planted systematically at exposed locations in the royal forests and in numerous castle gardens and parks in Wurttemberg.
This anniversary treatise is intended to describe the history of this impressive initiative of King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, and in particular the diversity and beauty of the remaining 132 sites of this so called “Wilhelma-Seed” in all of Wurttemberg, distributed from North Wurttemberg to Lake Constance in the south.
This book presents details of the locations in Wurttemberg, which were developed with the help and support of my friends and colleagues of the initiative "Project Sequoia" launched years ago.
Note, this e-book contains 30 pages and 140 photos.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
The King William Giants
Giant Sequoias in Wurttemberg
Lutz Krüger
Shortly before his death, 150 years ago, King William I of Wurttemberg gave the royal forestry commission in the country an unusual mission, the preparation and realisation of which, lead to a diversity of results which was without parallel.
The discovery of the giant sequoia trees in North America in the middle of the 19th century caused a sensation, which King William I as a nature lover took as an opportunity to have seeds of these exotic trees sent directly from California to the temperate greenhouse of the current Wilhelma in Stuttgart in order to raise thousands of young trees. The giant trees were known at this time in Wurttemberg as Wellingtonia.
The young plants were then planted systematically at exposed locations in the royal forests and in numerous castle gardens and parks in Wurttemberg.
This anniversary treatise is intended to describe the history of this impressive initiative of King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, and in particular the diversity and beauty of the remaining 132 sites of this so called “Wilhelma-Seed” in all of Wurttemberg, distributed from North Wurttemberg to Lake Constance in the south.
This book presents details of the locations in Wurttemberg, which were developed with the help and support of my friends and colleagues of the initiative "Project Sequoia" launched years ago.
"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever is able to speak with them, whoever is able to listen to them, learns the truth. They do not preach teachings and recipes, they preach to the individual, the primordial law of life."
Hermann Hesse
Table of Contents
Development of Sequoias
Types of Sequoia
Longevity and Reproduction by Fire
Discovery in the 19th Century
First Plantings in Europe
Nomenclature and Classification
Spread of the Giants in the Gardens of Europe
King William I and the Exotic Giants
Report of the Royal Construction and Garden Directorate
Royal Forestry Commission Decree
Wilhelma-Seed Inventory in the 20th Century
Locations of the Wilhelma-Seed in Wurttemberg
Photo Records
Index
Photo Credits
Bibliography
Contact
In the younger eras of the earth’s history various species of giant trees developed during the Cretaceous period (Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 66 million years ago). The discovery of approximately 15 million-year-old fossils has confirmed that the genus Sequoiadendron (that is, the Giant Sequoia or the Wellingtonia) has already appeared in the Palaeogen and Neogen periods (approximately 66 to 2.5 million years ago, formerly known as Tertiary). Finds in various coal deposits in Germany show that giant trees of a similar kind belonged to our native flora in our latitudes.
Due to extreme climate changes in the ice age, animals and plants were forced to shift their habitats. In Europe, these "natural migrations" were restricted due to high mountain ranges (Alps) and led to the extinction of many plant species, whereas the situation for the viability of giant trees in parts of North America was more favorable.
The Giant Sequoias are conifers and belong to the family of cypresses (Cupressaceae). In this, they form a subfamily (Sequoioideae), which contains three genera each containing one living giant tree species.
For each of these species, the botanical name and (in parentheses) other known names are given in the English / German-speaking region.
Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoia, Big Tree, Sierra Redwood, Wellingtonia, Washingtonia / Bergmammutbaum, Wellingtonie)
Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood, California Redwood / Kustenmammutbaum)
Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood, Chinese water fir / Urweltmammutbaum)
The giant sequoias of the Wilhelma-Seed belong to the species Sequoiadendron giganteum. The name Wellingtonia has been used in the German-speaking world since the discovery of this specie in the 19th century and is often used as a synonym for the Giant Sequoia.
Cones, Seeds and Needles of the Sequoia, Photos: MG
The very high age of the Giant Sequoia in North America (over 3,000 years) is due to the fact that this tree species is able to protect itself from most of the common threats of nature. The bark of these trees is very thick (up to 60 cm1 measured in 2,000 to 3,000 years old trees) and rich in vegetable tannins, which provide a particularly good protection against fire damage, insect and fungal attack.
For a successful growth the Sequoia tree seedlings need a very nutrient-rich soil, plenty of sunlight and enough free habitat for the development of the young plants.
For this reason, periodic forest fires are necessary for the natural reproduction of mammoth trees in North America. These destroy competing plants and produce fertile soil for the seedlings. With the ascending heat of the fire, the hanging cones open, releasing the seed for the future giants.
1 23.6 in
In 1852, the first report of the discovery of giant trees was published by A. T. Dowd. As early as 1833, however, members of the Joseph Reddeford Walker and his party had discovered these giants on their expedition through the Sierra Nevada. The chronicles of Zenas Leonard, published in 1839, refer to the discovery of eerily large trees in the Sierra Nevada, which have a circumference of 16 to 18 fathoms (approximately 29 m to 33 m1) at the head-height of a grown man. This first account of the discovery of the giant trees did not reach the public press. However, the chance discovery of copy of the chronicles 65 years later (1904) set off a new discussion about the initial discovery of these giants.
In the first report in the Sonora Herald of June 1852, a hunt for a wounded bear is described by A. T. Dowd, during which Dowd accidentally discovered the mighty Sequoias in one of the Calaveras Groves. This sensational news spread quickly in California and was cited for the first time in Europe in the following year. One of the most famous plant collectors of this time, William Lobb, undertook a journey into the deep crossings of the Sierra Nevada in the same year and then sent seeds and cones of the giant trees as well as two young plants to England.
It should be pointed out that in the following years other people claimed the first discovery of the giant trees in the Sierra Nevada. One of the best known is John Bidwell, who later mentioned that as a small boy in 1841 he happened to encounter these giants in a grove in the Sierra Nevada during a hunt.
Leonards Chronicles from 1839
Group of trees in Mariposa Grove (Yosemite National Park), Photo: NM
1 96 to 108 ft
The seed and planting of Lobb in 1853 is generally considered to be the first introduction of the giant sequoia in Europe. It was commissioned by the Veitch Nurseries of Exeter, a reputable trade nursery in the south-west of England, which offered the first seedlings from the year 1854 at the price of two guineas per piece. However, additional distributions are also interesting from a European or German perspective.
A few years after the publication of the discovery story, a personal account of John Barrington was found, referring to the sending of seeds in 1844 to his father in Ireland.
In addition, the Scotsman John D. Matthew is said to have sent seeds to his father in Scotland before Lobb.
The introduction of the Wellingtonia in Germany probably occurred in 1854. On taking his position as Director of the Court Gardens in Oldenburg, Heinrich Ohrt brought a seedling with him which he had raised in the Wildpark near Potsdam in 1854. The seed of this Wellingtonia was from the first collection that Lobb brought from California to England in 1853. The great German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt received this seed from England and gave it to Orth for growing in the Wildpark.
The young Wellingtonia was planted in the Oldenburg Castle Gardens in 1858.
Located near Saarbrucken, the mill builder J. Ziegler travelled to California in 1854/55 to visit the Calaveras Grove. In February 1855, the seeds sent by Ziegler arrived in Germany. From these seeds, young trees were successfully raised including six which were planted in 1857 in the mill garden of the Ziegler family in Burbach.
Just as complete proof of the first discovery of the giants 150 years later can no longer be clarified (unless previously unknown documents are discovered), the same is true of the numerous names of this giant species.
The botanist Endlicher introduced the name Sequoia in 1844 for the recently discovered Coast Redwoods. It is often quoted that the term Sequoia was chosen in honour of the well-known Cherokee Indian Sequoyah (1763-1843), who for the first time developed a Cherokee script with the aid of 86 characters, thereby overcoming the illiteracy of the Cherokee tribe. In later examinations of all writings and publications of Endlicher, however, no reference could be found to the legendary Cherokee-Indian Sequoyah.
After the discovery of the new Giant Sequoia species a new designation had to be established. The following list shows that in a relatively short period of time various botanists from all over the world declared different names for this species.
Wellingtonia gigantea Lindl., 1853
Americus gigantea (Lindl.) Anon. 1854
Sequoia gigantea (Lindl.) Dcne. 1854
Washingtonia Californica Winslow 1854
Sequoia wellingtonia Seem. 1855
Gigantabies wellingtoniana J.Nelson 1866
Sequoia washingtoniana Winslow emend. Sudw. 1897
Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.), Buchholz, 1939
In 1939, Buchholz published his pioneering essay "The generic segregation of the sequoias", which showed a clear demarcation of the two giant species and at the same time introduced the new term Sequoiadendron giganteum.
During the 19th century, the giant trees of the Wilhelma-Seed were called Wellingtonie in the German-speaking area. Originally from the Anglo-Saxon (Wellingtonia), this name was introduced in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who became famous in the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, thanks to a joint victory with Prussia over Napoleon.
After the discovery of the "Big Trees" in North America in the middle of the 19th century, it took only a short time for many of the European countries to plant these giant trees. The trend to use exotic and non-European tree species in garden and park facilities was also evident in Germany in the first half of the 19th century. Following the example of the English landscape gardens, many gardens or parks were also created in Germany, which increasingly transformed artistic elements of architecture with those of botany into a symbiosis, in many cases enriched the native flora with non-European plants.
In Berlin and Potsdam, for example, we find a number of excellent examples of these landscape gardens (designed by Peter Joseph Lenne) or the Branitzer Park designed by Prince von Puckler-Muskau. This development is one of the reasons why today we can find the oldest Sequoia trees in Europe in stately gardens and parks.
Particularly impressive and still very well preserved plantations in the form of giant-tree avenues, which are often more than 100 m long, can be found, for example, in the Botanical Garden of Benmore (Scotland), the Cottesbrook Gardens near Market Harborough (England), in Mennecy (France) or in the Emo Court (Ireland). In addition to the Wilhelma-Seed in Wurttemberg, which is described here, we find in Germany a further particularly noteworthy cultivation, namely the "exotic forest" in Weinheim. There are also more than 130 Giant Sequoias, which were planted in 1872, in the extensive park designed by Count Christian von Berckheim at the end of the 19th Century.
It can be assumed that at that time, not only did the particular botanical interest in the discovered giant contribute to the rapid spread of giant trees in Europe, but also the obvious association with the concepts of strength, size and growth, combined with the fascination of planting trees which have an unusually high life expectancy of more than 3,000 years.