metasequoia glyptostroboides bonsai care

The bark is green in the 1st year, but quickly turns gray to brown. The bright green, feathery needled foliage leaves turn orange-brown or reddish-brown in the fall before falling off. In nature it grows in a pyramidal shape, maturing into a more rounded crown. The needles on the dawn redwood are opposite, meaning they are positioned directly across from each other on the stem, while the bald cypress needles are alternate (staggered).

The dawn redwood is often confused with the common bald cypress. It is also the smallest of the three redwood/sequoias: the Coastal Redwood, the Giant Sequoia and the Dawn Redwood. The only living species in its genus, the dawn redwood is a deciduous conifer tree, shedding leaves and slender twigs annually. A living testimony to the surprises still to be found in nature. The dawn redwood tree, thought to have been extinct for 20 million years now had living representatives known to the world. Villagers in the Sichuan region were using the foliage for cattle fodder and the wood for bridges and other construction. Then in 1941 it was discovered growing in the Shui-hsu Valley of the Sichuan province of China. Fossil remains were identified in North America, Asia and as far north as Greenland (which was almost tropical back then) and they had concluded that it must have been extinct for millions of years. Scientists believed It was once one of the most widespread tree species in the Northern Hemisphere. The Dawn Redwood is another “living fossil”, an ancient tree that knew the dinosaurs.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides bonsai care