Sequoiaen

Polly tog til Mariposa Grove. Det er fyldt med kæmpe sequoiaer. De er de største træer i verden.

Polly went to Mariposa Grove. It is full of giant sequoias. They are the biggest trees in the world.

Sequoia-barken er ikke brun. Den er dyb orange. Polly landede på en gren. Hun hakkede på barken med sit næb. Den var blød. Barken var meget tyk. Den tykke bark beskytter træet mod ild.

Sequoia bark is not brown. It is deep orange. Polly landed on a branch. She pecked the bark with her beak. It was soft. The bark was very thick. The thick bark protects the tree from fire.

En familie gik forbi. En lille pige sagde: "Se, en papegøje!" Hendes far sagde: "Det er et legetøj." Polly rørte sig ikke.

A family walked past. A little girl said, "Look, a parrot!" Her father said, "It is a toy." Polly did not move.

Hun fløj op i træet. Ved tredive meters højde begyndte grenene. De var tykke. Hun satte sig på en af dem. Toppen af træet var stadig langt over hende.

She flew up the tree. At thirty metres up, the branches started. They were thick. She perched on one. The top of the tree was still far above.

Det største træ hed Grizzly Giant. Det var omkring 3.000 år gammelt. Dets stamme var bredere end en bus.

The biggest tree was called the Grizzly Giant. It was about 3,000 years old. Its trunk was wider than a bus.

Polly satte sig på stammen. Hun kiggede op.

Polly perched on the trunk. She looked up.

Tre tusind år. Træet var allerede gammelt, da Rom var en lille landsby.

Three thousand years. The tree was already old when Rome was a small village.

Polly blev der længe. Der var et gammelt brandmærke på stammen. Træet havde overlevet mange brande.

Polly stayed a long time. There was an old fire mark on the trunk. The tree had survived many fires.

Et lille frø faldt forbi hende. Sequoiafrø har brug for ild for at vokse. Koglerne åbner sig kun i varme. Nye træer vokser efter en brand.

A small seed fell past her. Sequoia seeds need fire to grow. The cones open only in heat. New trees grow after a burn.