Metasequoia glyptostroboides seed

Other Names:dawn redwood
Dawn redwood is a fine, stately specimen for large landscapes such as parks or golf courses. They make excellent avenue trees. Fast growing, with a dense, feathery texture, a stand of dawn redwoods creates an effective summertime visual screen and windbreak in just a few years. Autumn colour is excellent and even the winter silhouette is very attractive with its massive, fluted trunk and strong horizontal branches. Dawn redwoods are at their best along watercourses or ponds and can even tolerate standing water.

Dawn redwood is a deciduous conifer that can get up to 50m tall with a trunk diameter exceeding 2.5m. The overall shape is pyramidal with a single straight bole. The trunk becomes strongly fluted and buttressed at the base and the bark is reddish brown and fibrous, shredding and peeling in long, thin strips. The needle-like leaves are flattened and linear, about 1.3 cm long and arranged in two opposite ranks. The needles are deciduous and even the smaller branchlets drop off in winter. In autumn, the foliage takes on a rich orange-brown or coppery colour.