![metasequoia dawn redwood metasequoia dawn redwood](https://i.etsystatic.com/14792178/r/il/fff770/2191300010/il_794xN.2191300010_ie8o.jpg)
However, in the same year, a second discovery was made that ended up being supremely relevant: Shigeru Miki of Kyoto University, studying fossil samples of the family Cupressaceae, isolated a divergent leaf form that led him to describe a new genus, which he named ''Metasequoia'', meaning "like a sequoia." Only in 1946 was the connection made between Miki's new genus and the living samples identified by Kan and Wang. These samples were determined to belong to a tree as yet unknown to science.
![metasequoia dawn redwood metasequoia dawn redwood](https://www.wilsonbrosgardens.com/assets/images/Dawn-Redwood-Amber-Glow-3.jpg)
In 1943, two more discoveries further brought ''Metasequoia'' to light: Chan Wang, a Chinese forestry official, also happened across an individual and collected samples from it. In 1941 a forester named Kan, while performing a survey in Sichuan and Hubei provinces, happened across an enormous tree - as it turned out, an individual of ''Metasequoia'' - and recognized it to be special. The preserve is tentatively scheduled to open to the public in 2035. CRDRP remains the only eastern redwood forest in the U.S., and the sole wild dawn redwood forest outside of China. A fourth grove was lost to beaver depredation with loss of 125 or more trees. Currently, 200+ trees thrive in three separate groves. Here, hundreds of dawn redwoods have been planted in a natural state where they can be observed and recorded in the wild, reducing the need for those in the U.S. In 1995, the Crescent Ridge Dawn Redwoods Preserve was established in North Carolina. The avenue is approximately 60 km long with over one million trees. Pizhou, Jiangsu boasts the Longest dawn redwood avenue in the world. The species will continue to live in yards, parks and on roadsides all over China, but the ''M. glyptostroboides'' forest ecosystem could disappear when its mature trees die. Cutting of trees or branches is illegal, but the demand for seedlings drives cone collection to the point that natural reproduction is no longer occurring in the dawn redwood forest.
![metasequoia dawn redwood metasequoia dawn redwood](http://media.growsonyou.com/photos/photo/image/279138/main/dawn1a.jpg)
However, it is still listed as endangered in the wild.
![metasequoia dawn redwood metasequoia dawn redwood](https://www.plantstoplant.com/Files/71136/Img/03/Metasequoia-glyptostroboides-trunk-zoom.jpg)
Since its discovery, the dawn redwood has become something of a national point of pride, and it is protected under Chinese law and also planted widely. In Lichuan, Hubei, there is a dawn redwood forest consisting of barely 5,000 trees, and some smaller groups. The cones are globose to ovoid, 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter with 16-28 scales arranged in opposite pairs in four rows, each pair at right angles to the adjacent pair they mature in about 8–9 months after pollination. The pollen cones are 5–6 mm long, produced on long spikes in early spring they are produced only on trees growing in regions with hot summers. The leaves are opposite, 1–3 cm long, and bright fresh green, turning a foxy reddish brown in fall. The bark is vertically fissured and tends to exfoliate in ribbon-like strips. The trunk forms a distinctive "armpit" under each branch. Metasequoia is a fast-growing tree, exceeding 35 m in height and 1 m in trunk diameter by the age of 50, in cultivation. Similar to Taxodium, older trees may form wide buttresses on the lower trunk. It created quite a stir in the botanical world, and by 1946 it was on its way to being collected and propagated around the world, today existing in parks, yards and gardens in many different countries and continents.While the bark and foliage are similar to another closely related genus of redwoods, ''Sequoia'', ''M. glyptostroboides'' differs from the coast redwood in that it is deciduous, like ''Taxodium distichum''. That tree was huge, and even today we do not know the ultimate size of dawn redwoods growing in gardens and parks across North America since most were planted less than one hundred years ago - not very long for trees that can live to be several centuries old!īotanists in Nanking were baffled by this mysterious tree, and could only conclude that it was unknown to science. Kan chanced upon a tree unlike anything he had ever seen before or was even remotely familiar with. One day while conducting his survey in the Sichuan Provinces, a forester by the name of T. In front of you stands a living fossil, once thought to be extinct, and only recently rediscovered due to a peculiar combination of circumstances and lore that seems to come right out of the pages of a storybook.Īs the story goes, in 1941 with the threat of a full-scale Japanese invasion of mainland China, exploration for new, safer territories began into the previously remote portions on the country. Dawn Redwood - Metasequoia glyptostrobodies