I love the story of the dawn redwood. It always gives me faith that, despite all the technology and science, the mystery of this world continue to amaze us forever. Although the Dawn Redwood has grown on this planet for more than 50 million years ago, it was not until relatively recently that botanists and scientists also realized that he had as a species, and even then, it was believed to be extinct.
In early 1940, Dr. Shigeru Miki, a Japanese paleo-botanist, wasworking with the fossils of the Sequoia Redwood and cypress in the United States. But what he found was not typical of a redwood or cypress. Both the Sequoia and cypress leaves alternated. The leaves of the fossils found are opposed to each other and were longer than the others. He realized he had found a new type of Redwood Metasequoia requested, ie, similar to the Sequoia (Meta is the Greek word for this type). Unfortunately, he believedthat has been extinct since the fossils were younger were more than 1.5 million years. However, published its findings.
Surprisingly, in the same decade, but for entirely different reasons, living dawn redwoods were found in a very remote part of rural China. Found in the forest grove, and acknowledging that he had never seen anything like this before these trees, said samples. Hu is a Professor of Beijing Botanical Institute, analyzed in the leavesand after reading the article by Dr. Miki, who was watching a very lively and not fossilized Dawn Redwood. Steps have been taken to preserve the trees are only found in the provinces of Sichuan and Hubei, as there were only about 1,000 live plants. The villagers, realizing they had been using the trees for their daily life, feeding their livestock and the use of wood for construction.
If you've seen a dawn redwood undoubtedly going to remember. A mature tree can be over 200 meters, althoughmost are at 100. E 'tall with a slender trunk tree trunks more massive than California Redwood Redwood. The branches are symmetrical and curved or angled upward. The Dawn Redwood bark is similar to the Sequoia with the same reddish hue, but is more sensitive (if the cortex may be sensitive) and not raw. The leaves and needles are bright green feathers almost. They make a copper strike in the autumn before falling. A Dawn Redwood is a very nice tree.
L 'Dawn Redwood has a special place in my heart, as we had one in our backyard when I lived in California. For 25 years, has provided beauty and shade, is faithful shedding needles in the fall and then again in the rebirth of spring growth. It has given beauty to our backyard wedding, provided that the branches of raising our children on the rise, and was a permanent memorial to the many cats, dogs, turtles, mice and crosses that have been buried at the base with small wood. Since wemoved, not the house or the city misses me, but my Dawn Redwood with its incredible history.
Thanks To : Camera telephoto lens