Giant redwood, Wellingtonia
Leaves like short claws, part-way between needle and scale, forward pointing and hard/stiff. Decurrent, dense on shoots, giving a dreadlock-like appearance to foliage sprays. When torn from branchlets, minor shoots with with an aniseed or liquorice-like scent at the freshly exposed wood, often weak. Cones like small hand-grenades, initially green and ripening to brown over 2 years. Cone-scale tips like pursed lips. Bark deeply fissured, dark reddish-brown, soft and fibrous.
Giant redwoods are restricted to a narrow band of sites along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and were introduced to the British Isles in 1853. Widely planted and common in large gardens, parks, churchyards and cemeteries. These are commonly regarded as the most massive trees alive today, the largest of them currently with around a stem volume of around 1473 cubic meters.