Despite its paleontological significance and economical value as a rare relict species, genomic resources of Metasequoia are very limited. The "living fossil" Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng, commonly known as dawn redwood or Chinese redwood, is the only living species in the genus and is valued for its essential oil and crude extracts that have great potential for anti-fungal activity. Zhao, Ying Thammannagowda, Shivegowda Staton, Margaret Tang, Sha Xia, Xinli Yin, Weilun Liang, Haiying Demand for seeds has led to very little recruitment in the remaining populations.An EST dataset for Metasequoia glyptostroboides buds: the first EST resource for molecular genomics studies in Metasequoia. Despite its success as a landscape tree, the dawn redwood is still considered endangered in the wild. The largest population of this species can be found growing in Xiaohe Valley and consists of around 5,000 individuals. However, most of these are quite small, consisting of around 30 trees. Today we now know of a few more populations. Everyone wanted to own this living fossil. The dawn redwood would become quite the sensation. Thanks to a collecting trip in 1948, seeds of this species were distributed to arboretums around the world. They realized that these were from a living member of the genus Metasequoia. In 1946, two professors looked over the samples and determined them to be quite unique indeed. Though the samples were quite peculiar, World War II restricted further investigations.
For this reason, Metasequoia was thought to be an extinct lineage.Īll of this changed in 1943 when a Chinese forestry official collected samples from a strange tree growing in Moudao, Hubei. Despite its success, fossil evidence of this genus disappears after the Miocene. It is hypothesized that the genus Metasequoia evolved its deciduous nature to cope with the darkness. Regardless of climate, axial tilt nonetheless made it so that the northern hemisphere did not see much sun during the winter months. Why would a tree living in tropical climates drop its leaves? Sun.
Evidence would suggest that the dawn redwood and its relatives were already deciduous by this time. The genus hit its widest distribution during a time when most of the world was warm and tropical. In fact, the fossilized remains of these trees make up a significant proportion of the fossils found in the Badlands of North Dakota.įossil evidence dates from the late Cretaceous into the Miocene. It could be found throughout the northern regions of Asia and North America. As with the other redwood species, the dawn redwood once realized quite a wide distribution. Until 1944 the genus Metasequoia was only known from fossil evidence.
Compared to its cousins, the dawn redwood is the runt, however, with a max height of around 200 feet (60 meters), a mature dawn redwood is still an impressive sight. Along with the coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum), the dawn redwood makes up the subfamily Sequoioideae.