United States / Grow / giant sequoia

giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)
Photo: (c) folini, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

giant sequoia

Sequoiadendron giganteum · Cupressaceae · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Giant sequoia carries an avoid recommendation in the cited rows. That sourced conclusion belongs to the Sequoiadendron giganteum record and is not extended to other trees by the scene.

Two hardiness assertions supply the selected climate context. Their individual sources remain available under hardiness evidence, apart from the recommendation trail.

Same-form alternatives are documented under related plants. They give readers a comparison path while leaving the avoid designation and both hardiness assertions attached to this giant sequoia profile.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Form
tree
Mature height
~150 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Catalonia, Spain; Global; eastern US; southern Idaho / Intermountain
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
3 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Catalonia, Spain; Global; eastern US; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source
  • Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
    • Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08

      The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in CA, DC, DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in CA.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 4b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

1

exact source area

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

1 native source area · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • California (CA)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (3)

Listed without a rating (39)
Corroboration (39 rows from 1 source)
  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    39 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Belcher2016: Belcher, C. M. (2016). The influence of leaf morphology on litter flammability and its utility for interpreting palaeofire. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371, 20150163.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Belcher2016-1; sampling ND.

      • “time to flaming (s): 14.28”

        FLAMITS record 609; Ignitability measurement.

      • “burning duration (s): 46.95”

        FLAMITS record 624; Sustainability measurement.

      • Shared measurement context: Combustibility measurement.

        • “maximum energy release rate (kW): 4.53”

          FLAMITS record 639.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 2413.47”

          FLAMITS record 654.

    • Primary study deMagalhaes2012: De Magalhães, R. M. Q., & Schwilk, D. W. (2012). Leaf traits and litter flammability: evidence for non-additive mixture effects in a temperate forest. Journal of Ecology, 100, 1153-1163.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device burning bench; site deMagalhaes2012-1; sampling summer.

      • “time to flaming (s): 5.1”

        FLAMITS record 2635; Ignitability measurement.

      • Shared measurement context: Sustainability measurement.

        • “burning duration (s): 1880.1”

          FLAMITS record 2643.

        • “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 0.09”

          FLAMITS record 2651.

      • “flame height (cm): 58.6”

        FLAMITS record 2659; Combustibility measurement.

      • “burnt biomass (%): 88.5”

        FLAMITS record 2667; Consumability measurement.

    • Primary study vanWagtendonk1998: Van Wagdendonk, J., Sydoriak, W. M., & Benedict, J. M. (1998). Heat content variation of Sierra Nevada conifers. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 8, 147-158.

      Shared row context: Combustibility measurement; fuel live; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site vanWagtendonk1998-1; sampling ND.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part leaves.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 1726.86”

          FLAMITS record 13467.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4760.2”

          FLAMITS record 13469.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part litter.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 1430.69”

          FLAMITS record 13468.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4853.35”

          FLAMITS record 13470.

      • Shared measurement context: plant part wood.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4803.19”

          FLAMITS record 13543.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4757.81”

          FLAMITS record 13544.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5051.59”

          FLAMITS record 13545.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4862.9”

          FLAMITS record 13546.

    • Primary study Zhang2022: Zhang, S., Cornwell, W. K., Zhao, W., van Logtestijn, R. S., Krab, E. J., Aerts, R., & Cornelissen, J. H. (2022). Experimental evidence that leaf litter decomposability and flammability are decoupled across gymnosperm species. Journal of Ecology, 111, 761-772.

      Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Zhang2022-1; sampling january and march 2011.

      • “maximum flame temperature (°C): 677.916”

        FLAMITS record 15576; Combustibility measurement.

      • “flaming duration (s): 3.4”

        FLAMITS record 15617; Sustainability measurement.

    • Primary study deMagalhaes2017: de Magalhães, R. (2017). The effect of leaf traits on litter flammability in mixed-conifer forest. PhD. Dissertation. Texas Tech University.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel all; predrying no; device burning bench; site deMagalhaes2017-1; sampling ND.

      • Shared measurement context: Ignitability measurement.

        • “time to flaming (s): 12.47”

          FLAMITS record 17016.

        • “time to flaming (s): 8.22”

          FLAMITS record 17017.

        • “time to flaming (s): 10.43”

          FLAMITS record 17018.

        • “time to flaming (s): 10.33”

          FLAMITS record 17019.

      • Shared measurement context: Sustainability measurement.

        • “burning duration (s): 1445.32”

          FLAMITS record 17020.

        • “burning duration (s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17021.

        • “burning duration (s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17022.

        • “burning duration (s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17023.

        • “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 0.046”

          FLAMITS record 17032.

        • “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17033.

        • “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17034.

        • “rate of burning spread (cm/s): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17035.

      • Shared measurement context: Combustibility measurement.

        • “flame height (cm): 474”

          FLAMITS record 17024.

        • “flame height (cm): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17025.

        • “flame height (cm): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17026.

        • “flame height (cm): 50”

          FLAMITS record 17027.

      • Shared measurement context: Consumability measurement.

        • “burnt biomass (%): 40.78”

          FLAMITS record 17028.

        • “burnt biomass (%): 33.33”

          FLAMITS record 17029.

        • “burnt biomass (%): 0”

          FLAMITS record 17030.

        • “burnt biomass (%): 66.67”

          FLAMITS record 17031.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Fire-resistant trees listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant sequoia). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/sequoiadendron-giganteum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.