Common name: Redwood. An extinct species of redwood, related to the coast redwood/California redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and the giant sequoia/sierra redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Sequoia affinis may have been the ancestor of the California redwood, the giant sequoia, or both. Redwoods are large conifers which grew along the moist valley bottom.

The genus, Sequoia, is thought to have been named after Sequoyah, a Cherokee linguist/silversmith who created a system of writing for the Cherokee language. After meeting some resistance within the Cherokee Nation, the alphabet was officially incorporated in 1825, and soon after, the first Native American newspaper, The Pheonix, was published with Sequoyah's new alphabet, it is still in print today.

Pollen morphotypes

Both Taxidiaceaepollenites and Sequoiapollenites were likely formed by the Sequoia, but Sequoiapollenites more closely resembles living Sequoia (coast redwood) and Sequoiadendron (Sierra redwood or giant redwood) due to the protruding papilla (little notch at top on the lower pollen picture). Taxidiaceaepollenites is more common in the Florissant Formation, which means that Florissant's redwood differs from modern relatives by producing more of the Taxidiaceaepollenites-type pollen.

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