Dawn Redwood

[Baobab]

seen her anywhere around here?

She s not quite as big, she's short and sort of gnarly looking, but so pretty in the fall

[Zambero]

1. I planted one while in Oregon about 25 years ago

A very cool tree indeed. It did not grow as quickly as the coast redwoods in my area, but the yellow-orange fall color and needle drop was quite unusual since most conifers are evergreen. This species is considered a "living fossil" going back millions of years. It was once wide-ranging but has a very limited natural range in China. It was believed to be long extinct until the late 1940's when a grove of living trees was encountered. It is a poor seed producer, so cuttings were taken and propagated. I understand that many if not most of the introduced dawn redwood trees around the world have descended from those initial cuttings and not from seed.

[WheelWalker]

2. Coast redwood (sempervirens) is also difficult to propagate from seed -

not because it is a poor seed producer, but because so few are viable. My own experience confirms studies that show viability around 1 percent, due largely to a low proportion of sound seed. Propagation by cutting can be very successful, on the other hand.

[Baobab]

4. Thats good to know, I was thinking about buying seeds..

Glad I didn't if only arooud 1% germinate.

Do they need a coldish winter to 'set' the seeds?

yes, the story is very cool! I like the fact that they used to grow on Ellesmere Island, that shows how much our climate can vary here on Earth. Apparently there the sun goes away completely for several months of the year and during the summer stays out all of the time.

[Retrograde]

3. There's a big one outside of the Palo Alto downtown post office

and a small grove in the San Francisco Botanic Garden. Cool trees - deciduous conifers: the first time I saw one turn brown in fall I was a little worried, but I was assured it would come back in spring!

Fun fact: all the ones in the US can be traced to a group of Metasequoia found in China in the 1940s. The tree was considered extinct until then, known only from the fossil record.

[Baobab]

5. I am SO glad that they figured it out that they were so unique before they were gone!

It really is an amazing story.

The "metasequoia valley" was difficult to get to from the rest of China so they survived.


The area is now growing a great many of them for sale as ornamental trees and perhaps also eventually for lumber. They make really pretty, low maintenance roadside trees. Lots of communities have "metasequoia avenues" Evidently they are far more tolerant of air pollution than many trees and may even help clean the air.Which would make a lot of sense.

in part they have survived into the modern era because of adaptability to change!

Many parts of the Lost Coast in Northern California are still difficult to get to, because of very deep canyons make for narrow roads, especially for big trucks.

Some of the towns along the coast were primarily logging towns and were unserved by roads because of the steep tarrain, so they had to ship the lumber out by boat.

Were it not for the difficulty getting in and out of there its likely we would have far fewer Coast Redwoods.

I love redwood country, I've spent a lot of time exploring around there (and also in the desert Southwest).

Wish I was there now, its really pretty this time of year.