CUPRESSACEAE - - Cypress Family

Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & W.C. Cheng — Dawn-redwood

Dawn-redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) - is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus Metasequoia, one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now survives in the wild only in wet lower slopes and montane river and stream valleys in the border region of Hubei and Hunan provinces and Chongqing municipality in south-central China, notably in Lichuan county in Hubei. Although the shortest of the redwoods, it can grow to 167 ft (51 m) in height. The leaves are opposite, 1–3 cm long, and bright fresh green, turning a foxy reddish brown in autumn. The pollen cones are 5–6 mm long, produced on long spikes in early spring; they are produced only on trees growing in regions with hot summers. The cones are globose to ovoid, 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter with 16–28 scales arranged in opposite pairs in four rows, each pair at right angles to the adjacent pair; they mature in about 8–9 months after pollination. While the bark and foliage are similar to another closely related genus of redwoods, Sequoia, M. glyptostroboides differs from the coast redwood in that it is deciduous, like Taxodium distichum (Bald Cypress). Similar to T. distichum, older trees may form wide buttresses on the lower trunk. M. glyptostroboides is a fast-growing tree, exceeding 35 m (115 ft) in height and 1 m (3.3 ft) in trunk diameter by the age of 50, in cultivation (with the potential to grow to even greater dimensions). The trunk forms a distinctive "armpit" under each branch. The bark is vertically fissured and tends to exfoliate in ribbon-like strips.

Information from Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Habitat:

Escaping from horticultural plantings in wetland and upland settings. Native of wc. China.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

The range of Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn-redwood)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].