Dawn redwood Metasequoia glyptostroboides

This deciduous conifer, a relic of prehistoric times, had been thought extinct but was discovered alive and well and living in China less than 60 years ago. This relatively recent find means that very little is known about the dawn redwood, except that it can grow quickly in the right climate.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides, or dawn redwood, to give it its more readily pronounceable name, is a relatively recent discovery in tree terms. Indeed, it was thought to be extinct until a small group of unidentified trees were found near the Yangtze River in China in 1944.

Several years prior to this, fossils of the tree had been found and identified as relics from the Mesozoic era, some 65-250 million years ago. Once live trees were discovered however, collecting missions began and the seeds were distributed to tree collections in Europe and North America.

It soon became apparent that the tree can easily be reproduced using cuttings and in the 60 or so years since its introduction, some specimens have already grown to a height of 40m (130ft). It grows best in warmer climes and although is now fairly widespread in Britain as an ornamental tree, there are very few in Scotland due to the cooler weather.

The dawn redwood has the familiar conical coniferous shape, with sparse upward sweeping branches giving the tree a narrow form. The leaves which are short, broad needles, could be mistaken for those of the yew (Taxus baccata). However, this mistake should only be made in the summer for unlike its redwood cousin, the Sequoia, Metasquoia is a deciduous conifer whose needles turn a reddish-brown before falling off in the autumn.