2020 | Marin County, California
This species had been known only to paleobotanists as a Mesozoic fossil dating back 150,000,000 years. In the 1940’s it was found alive and well in a remote valley in China. Shortly after its identification as a discrete species, seeds were collected under a small grant from Harvard’s arboretum and these were shared among the botanical community.
A fast grower, the dawn redwood is now revered by many; this specimen was planted in a place of advantage around 1955. I came to know it later and have been a faithful witness to half its life. Trees of all ages have been lost to human pride, but this one survives in spite of brittle upslope Bishop pines dropping all around it. And it has not suffered the worst – impatient property owners assess these trees’ brown needles in the fall, consider them diseased, and take them down. Anyone who recognizes the characteristic spiral bark pattern would want to jump in front of that saw.
Metasequoia glyptostroboides is deciduous.