(Published in the September 2008 Forum)

Last issue we described the popular Willow Oak as one of the most frequently planted street trees.  This issue we feature a much rarer tree, the Dawn Redwood. Until 1941, it was thought to have become extinct 1.5 million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch. Discovered living in Southwest China, Dawn Redwood seeds were brought to the United States in 1948 by scientists from Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.   Metropolitan Life, which built Parkfairfax in the early 1940s, planted two young Dawn Redwoods as part of a special program.

Our Dawn Redwoods are now about 65 feet high and pyramidal in shape. They grow very quickly, as much as five feet per year when young and can reach 110-120 feet when mature. They are deciduous conifers, producing feathery 1/2 to 1 inch pale green needles on branchlets in the spring, turning bright green as they mature and then, in the fall, turning a rich amber before falling off.  The bark is red in youth, turning darker and fissured as the tree ages. 

Where to see the Dawn Redwoods

You can find the two Dawn Redwoods along Martha Custis Drive between Preston RoadValley Drive.  The first is on an island of a parking space near Building 223 and 225.  The second, about half a block toward Valley Drive, is located in front of Building 230. and

For more information about Dawn Redwoods

            -Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs, Timber Press, 1997

            -www.dawnredwood.org

            -http://arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/524.pdf

October’s issue will describe one of our most abundant trees, the Red Maple.