Bryan Tyler Nelson			REDWOOD BURL
		REDWOOD BURL - (Sequoia sempervirens) Redwood is an evergreen, long-lived, monoecious tree living for up to 2,200 years, and this species includes the tallest trees on Earth, reaching up to 115.5 m (379.1 ft) in height and 8 m (26 ft) diameter at breast height. It is native to coastal California and the southwestern corner of Oregon within the United States.   The swollen tissue at the base of some redwood trees is commonly known as a "burl" although scientifically it is referred to as a lignotuber (from the Latin for "woody swelling"). All redwoods have lignotuber tissue but not all have large visible burls. Lignotuber tissue is derived from cells that exist in the tree's seedling stage and then proliferate near the base of the tree as it ages. Buds form within the woody burl and remain dormant until stimulated to grow by damage to the main trunk (usually by fire or logging). The resulting shoots grow rapidly using carbohydrates stored in the surrounding cells and minerals transported through the parent tree's root system. Lignotubers can also form their own roots.    Lignotubers are responsible for vegetative (clonal) reproduction common in redwoods. Without this mode of propagation, the redwood forest would appear far different than it does currently. The second and third-growth redwoods in our coastal forests were generated vegetatively after 19th and 20th century logging of the original forests. If redwoods were solely dependent on reproduction from seed, their numbers would only be a small fraction of what we see today.
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