![]() The species can now be found worldwide - the result of botanic gardens and growers. The meaning of METASEQUOIA is any of a genus (Metasequoia) of deciduous coniferous trees of the bald cypress family comprising one extant and various fossil. Although large individual trees are protected, the wild population is still under threat from increasing agriculture as its natural habitat is disappearing and the species cannot recover in the wild. All that remains are small groups of trees here and there, lone witnesses to the original forest, enclosed by agriculture and villages. During the Chinese Revolution of 1949 this forest was felled. Miki and the discovery and classification of the living Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng (Dawn Redwood) in 19461948 by Professors H. When the species was discovered in1944, they grew in a forest comprising about 6000 large trees in the Shuishaba Valley. The story of the establishment of the fossil genus Metasequoia Miki in 1941 by the Japanese paleobotanist S. In the Shuishaba Valley in China, where this species can still be found, a continental climate with warm summers and cold winters prevail. The remaining populations are all of what remains of a, once extensive, riverine woodland, in which the dawn redwood was a component. Therefore it is similar to the bald cypress ( Taxodium distichum) in its environmental requirements. Small native populations of the dawn redwood occur on wet ground along rivers and in open woodland that flood regularly. ![]() The dawn redwood differs in that its leaves are oppositely arranged whereas on the bald cypress they are offset. On first sight this species looks like the bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, from North America. In the wild the tree can reach about 35 m in height. It was a ‘living fossil’, similar to the more well-known Ginkgo biloba which is also found in China. Shortly afterwards in Central China a new tree was discovered - a Metasequoia. 1, 2 The genus Metasequoia was first described as a fossil by Miki in 1941. The genus Metasequoia was first described from fossil material. genus metasequoia: genus of deciduous conifers comprising both living and fossil forms 1 extant species: dawn redwood of China variously classified as. Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng (also known as the dawn redwood, Chinese redwood and water fir), is the sole extant species of Metasequoia, which was widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere in the Cretaceous and Palaeogene. Discovered in 1944 in the Shuishaba Valley The dawn redwood grows fast and in China is now widely planted to supply timber for scaffolding used in many construction projects in the country. In 1947 with the support from the Arnold Arboretum an expedition set out to collect seeds from which several botanical gardens in the Netherlands have grown material. Chinese dendrologists identified them as the supposedly extinct Metasequoia. In 1941, in an inaccessible area of China, a forester discovered a small population of unfamiliar trees: trees with thin branches, graceful foliage and a beautiful pyramid-shaped crown. The tree has long been known but only from the fossil record (70 to 5 million years ago). ![]() ![]() The dawn redwood is a deciduous conifer, just like the larch. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |