The Dawn Redwood features feathery, fern-like foliage that is soft to the touch. While the bark and foliage of the Dawn Redwood are similar to the other redwoods, it is distinct in that it is deciduous and develops a widened trunk-base as it matures, not unlike the Bald Cypress ( Taxodium distichum). In fact, these three species completely comprise the Cupressaceae subfamily Sequoioideae, or the redwood subfamily. It is the sole living member of the genus Metasequoia, which literally means “almost a sequoia.” As this name implies, the Dawn Redwood is closely related to the Coast Redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens) and the Giant Sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum). The seedlings grown from this seed were then distributed to universities and arboreta around the world in an attempt to preserve the species.įrom fossil data, the Dawn Redwood is known to have existed as many as 50 million years ago. After discovering that the Dawn Redwood was in fact not extinct, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University sent an expedition to collect seeds from the discovery site. This hypothesis was proven false only 6 years later in 1947, when a small stand of unidentified trees in Southwest China was found to belong to the already described fossil species. At that time, it was believed to have been extinct for millions of years. This conifer was first described in 1941 based only on fossil evidence. The living fossil in reference is the Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Did you know that Reiman Gardens offers visitors the chance to see a living fossil? No, I’m not referring to the topiary dinosaurs in the Children’s Garden.
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