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The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

nytimes.com

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Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#21

Post by kajecounterhack »

noodlenotes wrote: post #5
bombcar wrote: post #3

It never occurred to me that Palo Alto means Tall Stick(Tree) even though I knew Alto meant tall.

Just wait until you see the Stanford logo. http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...

Isn't Stanford's tree a Sequoia, which is different from a Redwood?

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#22

Post by zsmi »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #21
noodlenotes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait until you see the Stanford logo. http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...

Isn't Stanford's tree a Sequoia, which is different from a Redwood?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Tree

"The "Tree" is representative of El Palo Alto, the tree that appears on both the official seal of the University and the municipal seal of Palo Alto, Stanford's nearby city."

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#23

Post by brudgers »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #21
noodlenotes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait until you see the Stanford logo. http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...

Isn't Stanford's tree a Sequoia, which is different from a Redwood?

The coastal redwood is sequoia sempervirens.

The giant sequoia is sequoiadendron giganteum.

So depending on how you look at it, either species is or ain’t a sequoia or vice versa or both.

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#24

Post by sleepytimetea »

clpm4j wrote: post #7

I used to live in a condo building directly across the street from El Palo Alto. Walked by it every morning. Like the article says, it's in a small park right next to the Caltrain tracks, and you probably wouldn't take notice of it unless you already knew about it. I didn't know a lot of the history that this article provided, though... I love the thought of a >1k year old living thing just standing there inconspicuo…

I have walked past that tree probably more than a hundred times and I never knew it was that old or the originator of the name of the city. Its not very tall or massive, unlike the giant trees in the park on Lytton Ave. I always liked that big and tall condo building there - with big balconies facing the tree - was it fun to live in that bldg ?

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#25

Post by canadianfella »

kurofune wrote: post #16
jacquesm wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pole in English = Paal in Dutch = Palo in Spanish

Not really, "palo" means "stick" in spanish. Pole = Poste.

Poste is post... pole and stick can refer to the same thing.

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#26

Post by dhosek »

kajecounterhack wrote: post #21
noodlenotes wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait until you see the Stanford logo. http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...

Isn't Stanford's tree a Sequoia, which is different from a Redwood?

As noted in another comment, the genus of the redwood is Sequoia. The trees with the common name sequoia (which are a different genus) tend to be shorter than redwoods but also much thicker in their trunks. They are native to the mountains further inland (you'll find them in Yosemite as well as (unsurprisingly) Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park). I'm pretty sure that the Stanford tree is, in fact, a Sequoia and not a sequoia.

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#28

Post by hkmurakami »

batsy71 wrote: post #13

I live right next to this tree. Interestingly, the city of Palo alto also has some electrical plumbing attached to this tree. Not sure if it's for the tree's health or just some connections for the nextdoor train tracks.

Redwoods are notoriously water hungry (and thus sometimes out of favor these days as part of landscaping these days), so it would not be surprising to install some help for this one.

Re: The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

#29

Post by compsciphd »

clpm4j wrote: post #7

I used to live in a condo building directly across the street from El Palo Alto. Walked by it every morning. Like the article says, it's in a small park right next to the Caltrain tracks, and you probably wouldn't take notice of it unless you already knew about it. I didn't know a lot of the history that this article provided, though... I love the thought of a >1k year old living thing just standing there inconspicuo…

I used to drive by that park all the time (driving to San Mateo from Palo Alto down Alma, much easier than dealing with El Camino traffic) and never knew that was there.
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