Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Scientific name: Metasequoia glyptostroboides H.H.Hu & W.C.Cheng  1948

Synonyms:Metasequoia honshuenensis Silba & Callahan, Metasequoia neopangaea Silba, Sequoia glyptostroboides (Hu & W.C.Cheng) Weide

Common names:Dawn redwood, Shui shan (Chinese)

Description

Tree to 35(-60) m tall, with a straight, fluted trunk to 2 m in diameter. Bark reddish brown to gray, peeling in thin strips from narrow ridges between shallow furrows. Crown fairly dense, conical at first and for many years, with numerous slender horizontal branches, a few of which become major upswept limbs of  an ultimately broadly domed or flat crown. Deciduous short shoots mostly 10-15 cm long, with 25-35 pairs of leaves spreading distichously out to the sides, emerging from winter buds whose scales remain at the base of the shoots until they fall. Leaves longest through the middle two-thirds of the short shoot, markedly shorter at the base and tip, light green when new, turning reddish brown before falling in autumn. Leaves of middle portion of short shoot straight or slightly curved back, substantially parallel-sided for much of their length, tapering abruptly to the broadly pointed tip and the rounded base, 8-15 mm long (to 30 mm in juveniles), 1.2-2(-2.5) mm wide. Pollen cones about 5 mm long, in opposite pairs, with 7-10 pairs of pollen scales that become displaced from their opposite arrangement with growth. Seed cones with 8-12(-14) pairs of cone scales, (1.5-)2-3 cm long, 1-2.5 cm across, on stalks 1-7 cm long. Face of cone scales with a distinct notch all the way across between the bract portion and the seed scale portion, mostly 8-15 mm wide, 2-4 mm high. Seed about 5 mm long, the two slightly longer wings each about twice as wide as the seed body.

Central China, mostly in southwestern Hubei province. Streamsides at (750-)800-1,300(-1,500) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Endangered

(Metasequoia's extent of occurrence is well within the threshold for Endangered. Although there are 18 locations, the population is severely fragmented. There has been a recent decline in the quality of habitat and number of mature individuals. While the mature, large trees have all been declared protected, habitat protection is overall inadequate, which means that the survival of this very interesting species in its natural habitat is not guaranteed (Bartholemew 1983, Fu and Jin 1992, Wang and Guo 2009))

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.

Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.