I just thought that the redwoods might have a way to keep other plant life down untill they can recover. If fires gets really hot from too much underbrush and they have young trees or going to have young trees from the cones that were burned -- it might be some kind of inhibitory of other plants.
Not unusual in the plant kingdom.
The Black walnut, the parsley plant -- I found out this summer that black berry seeds (that I steam cooked boiled beyond live before throwing out in my lettuce patch) still has an inhibitory so now I did not get much lettuce this Fall.
