Thursday, October 29, 2009

Chinese Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

The Chinese Dawn Redwood is one of only 3 types of redwoods in the world. The other two being the Coast Redwood and the Giant Sequoia. I had read about them, but never seen one myself. But they've planted one at the UC Davis Arboretum in their redwood grove. All Coast Redwoods, except for this one Dawn Redwood, as far as I could tell. Unfortunately, no Giant Sequoia.
The foliage is very similar to the Coast Redwood, but more flexible and softer to the touch. It's also deciduous, so they recommend it for gardens in the Central Valley if you want a redwood, but also some light in the winter.
The cones are also very similar to the Coast Redwood.

6 comments:

  1. I wanted another post about the Arboretum and here it is. Very interesting about the Chinese redwood. I'd love to see more redwoods. We have some small ones in the LA Arboretum.

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  2. I've heard of more than one person who got rid of their dawn redwood when it lost all its needles -- seems so unusual for a tree with needles to be deciduous. What a shame, such a beautiful tree!

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  3. They're pretty. I lived in a hose with a grove of five in the backyard. Really nice. We considered planting one, but decided the clients would not like it when it went deciduous. Planted the local redwood instead.

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  4. there are 9 metasequoia growing on SJSU's campus

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    1. I mean 10. They're of various ages. the youngest being about 15-20 y/o

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    2. the oldest was probably planted around 1950 but no later than '53

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