Instant Inspiration: Photos from The Life & Love of Trees

Yosemite National Park, California

Species: Sequoidendrom gigantum
Photographer: Art Wolfe
The magnificent size and age of the sequoia belies the fact that it has been reduced to inhabiting a small area of the world—the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, as here in Yosemite National Park, California, United States. It does not need to reproduce often, but to do so requires unusual conditions. Fire is needed to clear the ground and create the right environment for the cones to spill their seed in fertile, light conditions. And then it needs space and to be left quietly alone for many years...all of which is hard to find outside of a national park.

From The Life & Love of Trees by Lewis Blackwell. Image © Art Wolfe