36. Shuǐ shān or Dawn Redwood

Specimen Size: 79.2ft tall, 19.25in in diameter.

Location: Crossing over Skagit Lane, this tree is behind the music building standing alone where the sidewalk angles off towards the north campus dorms.

Historical Background: The genus Metasequoia was first discovered in fossil form in 1941. Then in 1944 a stand of previously unidentified trees was found in China and was discovered to be M. glyptostroboides. This example probably dates from 1948 when the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University sent an expedition to collect seeds and distribute them to universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials. This native of China's eastern Szechuan and NW Hupeh is famous for being the only non-extinct deciduous redwood, as well as for being an excellent ornamental conifer wherever room allows--it grows 200 feet (61 meters) tall and has a thick trunk.

Non-Native

Native Range: Central and Western China

Identifying Features: The Dawn redwood is a tree renowned for its beauty. It has soft yellow-green foliage which cascades down in elegant sprays in a gorgeous symmetrical conical crown. These leaves grow opposite one another, and are in fact deciduous despite the tree being a conifer. They have fern-like foliage, with many small needle-like leaflets off a 2-4cm long leaf. These turn a brilliant orange gold in fall, complimenting the fibrous red bark that marks it as a relative of the Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia also seen on this tour.

Identifying Features In Depth:

1. Form: Straight and tall, up to a height of 100’ (30m) in a graceful conical shape and foliage right down to near ground level. Branches are ascendant, pointing skyward and visible fully in winter due to the trees deciduous nature.

2. Leaves: The leaves of this conifer are deciduous, a fern-like collection of needles that are a yellow-green to green color which catches summer light spectacularly as it trickles down through the branches. They grow opposite one another on the stem (unlike the similar looking Bald Cypress), to a length of ½-1 ¾’ (2-4cm). Leaves are soft and slightly curved and form into flat sprays.

3. Bark: Red brown to bright orange, typical of a member of the Redwood family of Sequoias, very fibrous and with age showing long fissures.

4. Reproductive Bodies: Cones are quite reminiscent of those of the Coast Redwood, and a smaller version of the Giant Sequoia seen later on. They are green when young and light brown, round to very slightly egg shaped, and very small. They have oddly flattened ends to their scales, and double winged seeds which are very small.