Dawn Redwood Tree History

Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia was first described as a fossil from the Mesozoic Era by Shigeru Miki in 1941, but in 1944 a small stand of an unidentified tree was discovered in China in Modaoxi by Zhan Wang;
due to World War II, these were not studied further until 1946 and only finally described as a new living species of Metasequoia in 1948 by Wan Chun Cheng and Hu Hsen Hsu.




In 1948 the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University sent an expedition to collect seeds and, soon after, seedling trees were distributed to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials.




There remains one Dawn Redwood forest, consisting of barely 5,000 trees. Since its discovery, the Dawn Redwood has become something of a national point of pride, and it is both protected under Chinese law and planted widely.


As such, it's not likely to go extinct, but Dawn Redwood is critically endangered in the wild.
Though cutting of trees or branches is illegal, the demand for seedlings drives cone collection to the point that natural reproduction is no longer occurring in the dawn redwood forest.



Although the species will continue to live in yards, parks and on roadsides all over China, the Metasequoia forest ecosystem could disappear when its mature trees die.



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The Dawn Redwood Tree

Dawn Redwood is a fast growing tree genus in the conifer family Cupressaceae of which Metasequoia glyptostroboides, is the only living species.

Dawn Redwood is a fast-growing tree to 25-45 m tall and 1 to 2 m trunk diameter in cultivation so far (There is potential to grow to even greater heights).
The leaves are bright fresh green and grow opposite, 1-3 cm long, turning a foxy red-brown in fall.

A living fossil !Dawn Redwood was once one of the most widespread tree species in the Northern hemisphere (during the Tertiary period).

Fossils have been found across the northern hemisphere, including Greenland and Spitzbergen, dating from when the continents were further south, and close together sharing a common flora.
In 1941 Shigeru Miki of Japan was reclassifying fossil remains that had been incorrectly classified as Sequoia and Taxodium.

Due to its resemblance to the North American coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), he named the tree species Metasequoia, which means "almost a sequoia, sequoia-ish".

Botanists think this species is the ancestor of the present day coast redwood.
To summarize: at that time, the tree was only known as an fossil tree species, extinct for millions of years.