This relative of the California redwood was only known from 200-million-year-old fossils until a small living population was discovered in 1941 in the Hubei Province of remote central China. Seeds from the soaring trees were collected and distributed, and it soon became a popular ornamental in home gardens. Its rebound was such that foresters grew it for pulp production. By 1980, however, the tree's recovery was threatened by intensive rice cultivation, and the government protected it from logging. Unlike the California sequoia, the dawn redwood is deciduous, losing its leaves for part of the year. (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
Photograph courtesy President and Fellows of Harvard College
