El Palo Alto

El Palo Alto is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree located in El Palo Alto Park on the banks of San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto, California, United States. El Palo Alto means the tall stick in Spanish.

El Palo Alto is currently 110 feet (33.5 meters) in height, down from 162.2 feet (49.4 meters) in 1814, its top progressively dying from 1865 to 1955 from lowering of the water table so that its roots could no longer reach water. The landmark redwood is 90 inches (2.3 meters) in diameter, and has a crown spread of 40 feet (12 meters). In 1955, an increment boring of the tree rings was taken and the tree's age was accurately determined to be 1,015 years, and in 2004 was 1,064 years old. El Palo Alto originally had twin trunks, but an 1886 flood and windstorm in the San Francisquito arroyo downed one of the two trunks.

Read more about El Palo Alto:  History, Health of The Tree and Conservation