Editing Sequoiadendron giganteum (section)

==Discovery and naming==
[[File:Giant sequoia exhibitionism.jpg|thumb|Shortly after their discovery by Europeans, giant sequoias were subject to much [[Exhibition_tree|exhibition]]]]
===Discovery===
The giant sequoia first gained widespread attention in 1852 when grizzly hunter Augustus T. Dowd discovered the [[Discovery Tree]] in [[Calaveras Grove]], marking the species' first widely publicized discovery by non-natives.<ref name="Farquhar">{{cite journal |last=Farquhar |first=Francis P. |title=Discovery of the Sierra Nevada |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=3–58 |year=1925 |url=http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/exploration_of_the_sierra_nevada/ |doi=10.2307/25177743 |jstor=25177743 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015049981668 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> The tree was cut down in 1853 and [[Exhibition_tree|exhibited]] across the United States. The story of Dowd's discovery gained further notoriety following a 1859 feature in [[Hutchings%27_Illustrated_California_Magazine|''Hutchings' Illustrated California Magazine'']], which promoted tourism to the grove.<ref name="Tweed2016">{{cite book |last=Tweed |first=William C. |title=King Sequoia: The Tree That Inspired a Nation, Created Our National Park System, and Changed the Way We Think about Nature |date=October 1, 2016 |publisher=Heyday |page=16}}</ref>

Before Augustus T. Dowd's well-known discovery in 1852, there were three earlier encounters with giant sequoias. The first known mention of the giant sequoia by a [[European American]] was in 1833 by explorer J.K. Leonard, who recorded it in his diary. While Leonard did not specify a location, his travels likely took him through [[Calaveras Grove]], but this observation remained unnoticed.<ref name="Farquhar"/>

In 1850, John M. Wooster encountered a giant sequoia at Calaveras Grove and carved his initials into the bark of the "Hercules" tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/discovery-and-naming-sequoiadendron-giganteum-sierra-redwood |title=The "discovery" and naming of Sequoiadendron giganteum, Sierra Redwood |publisher=Oregon State University |access-date=2023-11-01}}</ref> A year later, in 1851, [[Robert_A._Eccleston|Robert Eccleston]] traveled through [[Nelder Grove]] with a small detachment of the [[Mariposa Battalion]] during the [[Mariposa War]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Eccleston |first=Robert |date=1957 |title=The Mariposa War, 1850–1851 |editor=C. Gregory Crampton |publisher=University of Utah Press}}</ref> Similar to Leonard's experience, these encounters also received no publicity.

===Naming===
The first scientific naming of the species was by [[John Lindley]] in December 1853, who named it ''Wellingtonia gigantea'', without realizing this was an invalid name under the [[International Code of Botanical Nomenclature|botanical code]] as the name ''Wellingtonia'' had already been used earlier for another unrelated plant (''[[Wellingtonia arnottiana]]'' in the family [[Sabiaceae]]). The name "Wellingtonia" has persisted in England as a common name.<ref>{{cite book|first=R.|last=Ornduff|editor-last=Aune|editor-first=P. S.|year=1994|title=Proceedings of the Symposium on Giant Sequoias|publisher=US Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service (Pacific Southwest Research Station)|id=General Technical Report PSW-GTR-151|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr151/psw_gtr151_04_ornduff.pdf|chapter=A Botanist's View of the Big Tree|access-date=2013-02-08|archive-date=2011-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111029022337/http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/documents/psw_gtr151/psw_gtr151_04_ornduff.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The following year, [[Joseph Decaisne]] transferred it to the same genus as the coast redwood, naming it ''Sequoia gigantea'', but this name was also invalid, having been applied earlier (in 1847, by [[Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher|Endlicher]]) to the coast redwood. The name ''Washingtonia californica'' was also applied to it by Winslow in 1854; this name too is invalid, since it was already used for the [[Arecaceae|palm]] genus ''[[Washingtonia]]''.

In 1907, it was placed by [[Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze]] in the otherwise [[fossil]] genus ''[[Steinhauera]]'', but doubt as to whether the giant sequoia is related to the fossil originally so named makes this name invalid.

These nomenclatural oversights were corrected in 1939 by [[John Theodore Buchholz]], who also pointed out the giant sequoia is distinct from the coast redwood at the genus level and coined the name ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' for it.

The etymology of the genus name has been presumed{{mdash}}initially in ''The Yosemite Book'' by [[Josiah Whitney]] in 1868<ref name=cnps1/>{{mdash}}to be in honor of [[Sequoyah]] (1767–1843), who was the inventor of the [[Cherokee syllabary]].<ref name=natcomp/> An etymological study published in 2012, however, concluded that the name was more likely to have originated from the Latin ''sequi'' (meaning ''to follow'') since the number of seeds per cone in the newly classified genus fell in mathematical sequence with the other four genera in the suborder.<ref name=cnps2/>

[[John Muir]] wrote of the species in about 1870:<blockquote>
"Do behold the King in his glory, King Sequoia! Behold! Behold! seems all I can say. Some time ago I left all for Sequoia and have been and am at his feet, fasting and praying for light, for is he not the greatest light in the woods, in the world? Where are such columns of sunshine, tangible, accessible, terrestrialized?'<ref>{{cite book|last1=Muir|first1=John|editor1-first=Terry|editor1-last=Gifford|title=John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings|date=November 1996|publisher=Mountaineers Books|isbn=0-89886-463-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/johnmuirhislifel0000muir/page/139 139–140]|url=https://archive.org/details/johnmuirhislifel0000muir/page/139}}</ref></blockquote>