The common use of the name "sequoia" generally refers to Sequoiadendron giganteum, which occurs naturally only in the various groves that exist on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California.

[2] Fossils of Sequoiadendron chaneyi have been described from the Middle Miocene floras found in the area of Middlegate Basin in Churchill County, Nevada.

Specimens figured as Glyptostrobus by Jack Wolfe in 1964 from the Middlegate basin were re-identified by Daniel Axelrod in 1985 as S. chaneyi, based on morphology and the presence of cones in the same deposits.

[3] Fossils of S. chaneyi have been found in the late Miocene Relief Peak Formation of Alpine County, California.

The stratigraphy and composition of formations indicate that the fossils of the Mount Reba flora were deposited in a low, broad valley environment that drained southwesterly and was exposed to the storm track.