Most seeds begin to germinate once they land on fertile soil. Once redwoods are established, they have amazing characteristics that help them survive and adapt to their environment. Fire is a natural part of the redwood ecosystem and has amazing benefits for the forest environment. Another adaptation redwoods have in response to their natural environment is in regards to fog. Fog is a fact of life for coastal California plant communities, and even the mighty redwood has shown not only a tolerance but a dependence on it.
Fog can define limits of redwood groves, but fog also plays a key role in water use by the redwoods.
Besides water intake, redwoods receive many valuable benefits from fog. Redwoods, therefore, not only rely on fog, but the redwood ecosystem also relies on the redwoods. These closely resemble the modern S. sempervirens and may be an early relative. The fossil record is not clear. S. sempervirens belongs to the Taxodiaceae, or deciduous cypress, family, which has 15 species, distributed among 10 genera.