I first learned of the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in my Woody Plant Materials course at Temple University in the 1980s. Apart from the one specimen on the Ambler Campus, I’d never seen this deciduous conifer before. Since then, I’ve occasionally found it growing in home landscapes. There’s also a lovely, large Metasequoia by the little stream at the edge of the parking lot of the Kimberton Inn.
Our class studies focused on trees and shrubs for their landscape value. And so, I learned that this tree typically grows to about 70 to 100 feet tall with a spread of about 25 feet, that it tends to grow fast, is easy to transplant, and is not susceptible to disease. It was deemed well suited to parks, golf courses, and other large areas.
In our class, we never went further than that, and so it is that I never learned the tree’s surprising history. That changed just a few weeks ago thanks to an article by Maria Popova, in her weekly newsletter, The Marginalian.* I was so surprised and fascinated, I wanted to share what I learned with you.
The story goes back into prehistory about 60 million years, but we’ll pick it up in the 20th century, when a Japanese paleobotanist named Shigeru Miki discovered fossils that he determined were of a kind of redwood tree. As Popova writes, “Nothing like it had ever been described in the botanical literature, so he [Miki] deemed it extinct, naming it “Metasequoia” [“like a sequoia”] after its kinship to the Earth’s most majestic tree.”
In the winter of 1941, a Chinese forester exploring in Central China came upon a large, majestic tree that was unknown to him. The local people called it shui-sa, or “water fir” because it liked growing in moist earth. The forester brought back word of the tree and the news spread until it reached paleobotanist Hsen Hsu Hu, who had read of Miki’s fossil discovery about five years before. (Hu was the first Chinese person to be awarded a Ph. D. from Harvard University.) The “peculiar” leaf pattern told him instantly that the tree that had just been discovered was a living representative of the Metasequoia that formerly was only known through its fossil record.
Can you imagine the excitement of botanists and paleobotanists to find that a plant species believed to be long since extinct was still alive and growing on the planet? It was hailed by journalists as being “as remarkable as discovering a living dinosaur.”
Popova points out that it was not just the discovery, but also the subsequent return trips to collect specimens and then to begin raising plants/trees, that was remarkable. It encouraged and allowed collaboration between Japan and China at a time when they were divided by war. As Popova eloquently states, “Across the flaming divide that placed China and Japan on opposite sides of the World War, a small group of scientists had transcended the deadly artifice of borders and the ugliness of weapons to remind the world that the human longing for truth and beauty is greater than our foibles.”
Hu had retained his connection with Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and was helpful in the Arboretum’s quest to be able to collect Metasequoia seeds and bring them back to the U.S. for cultivation and distribution, an amazing story in its own right. You can read about it here: https://arboretum.harvard.edu/stories/as-remarkable-as-discovering-a-living-dinosaur-redwoods-in-china/
This is also the success story of a conifer that 60 million years ago developed the ability to shed its leaves to conserve energy during the long, dark Arctic winters, then grow exceptionally fast during the bright summer months. In this way, until the Ice Age, it increased its range across large swaths of the globe.
*Popova writes on the arts, science, poetry, and philosophy. I highly recommend her writing. (www.themarginalian.org)
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Pam’s nature-related books for children and families are available on Amazon, at Amazon.com/author/pamelabaxter.
