“what evidence is there that redwood stands devoid of a diverse collection of other plants does better than a pure collection of redwoods.”
the most impressive stands of redwoods have little more than ferns below them.
Their taproots are often 200 feet below the tree. They get their food deep.
“Their taproots are often 200 feet below the tree. They get their food deep.”
Mariner, the coastal redwoods have very primitive root-balls similar to primitive root-balls of palmettos and palms. These root-balls actually don’t go down much further than about 8-10 feet and don’t spread out more than a few feet from the trunk.
Most of their moisture is obtained from their canopy, and they grow best in steep narrow valleys where they essentially hold each other up, with the outer ones more or less leaning against the sides of the valleys.
Because they are so shallowly rooted, earthquakes are absolutely devastating, knowing them down like bowling pins. It’s a sad sight to behold to go into the Roosevelt Forest after an earthquake.
All of the biomass in a redwood forest resides in the trees themselves and their needle litter on the forest floor. Below the root-balls is nothing but clay, so when ancient redwood forests are clear-cut, you pretty much end up with a lifeless clay landscape. You can see tens of thousands of acres of this devastation from an airplane flying into the Arcata–Eureka Airport from San Francisco International ...