Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Dawn redwood is the sole living species in the genus Metasequoia, one of three species in the Sequoioideae subfamily of the Cupressaceae family. It is native to Hubei Province in China and can grow up to 35 m tall, becoming rounded with age. It was thought to be extinct, but a living specimen was discovered in 1941. It has now been cultivated in many parts of the world and is a popular horticultural species.

• Leaves are deciduous, like bald cypress (Taxodium distichum); they are pinnately and bi-pinnately compound, opposite on branchlets up to 7.5 cm long with up to 50–60 leaves, soft, flexible, projecting in one plane. Individual needles are 1–3 cm long, flattened with a mid-vein, bright fresh green on top, more pale on the underside, turning reddish brown in fall.
• Buds for the compound leaves are visible in winter, usually in opposite pairs, being ovoid or ellipsoid, 2.5–5 mm long; on very short stocks.
• Some branchlets also have single needle-like leaves 2.5 cm long, opposite, deciduous, linear, generally appearing two-ranked in a flattened display.
• Species is monoecious; males are light yellow brown, in narrow hanging clusters up to 30 cm long; females are yellow-green, solitary and erect with fused scales.
• Cones are globular, 2–2.5 cm in diameter, hanging from 5 cm twigs, with 20-28 opposite scales, broadly triangular. The pollen cones are 5–6 mm long, on the ends of long spikes in early spring.
• Bark is vertically deeply fluted and tends to exfoliate in ribbon-like strips; the trunk forms a distinctive "armpit" under each branch.