Dawn Redwood
Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Learn about the dawn redwood including when and why it was planted, how to identify it, and where to find it on campus.
Tree Facts
Traits
- Strong, triangular growth habit
- Fern-like foliage that turns brown in the fall and then drops
- Red-orange brown bark that peels off in shreds
- Exposed roots grow out of the tree trunk (buttress-like root system)
- Round to oval cones that are between 1/2 to 1 inch long
Native Range
- Szechwan Province of China
Story of the Tree
Two dawn redwood trees were planted to honor Washington State's first woman governor, Dixie Lee Ray. All current trees growing across the world are derived from a grove of trees discovered in Hubie, China in 1944.
One of these trees has a plaque explaining how in 1980 a sequoia tree was planted to commemorate Washington’s first woman governor, Gov. Dixy Lee Ray. When that tree died, it was replaced with these Chinese cousins of the mighty California sequoias.
Metasequoia means “changed sequoia” in reference to its deciduous habit. Like other sequoias or redwoods, this species grows quickly to become very large.
The needles are delicate ferny green in summer, then turn bronze, pinkish or golden before dropping in fall. Dawn redwood was thought extinct, then was discovered growing in remote China during the 1940s.