Metasequoia glyptostroboides
A botanical ghost returned to life.
What makes it unique. Metasequoia glyptostroboides is one of the rare trees described first as a fossil — known to palaeobotanists for millions of years through rock imprints — before being discovered alive. In 1944, a Chinese forester located a population of several hundred trees in a remote valley on the border of Sichuan and Hubei. The scientific world was astonished: a species considered extinct for five million years was quietly growing in the mountains of central China. Its flat, soft needles, arranged in opposite rows along the shoots, turn a brilliant orange-russet in autumn before falling — a rare behaviour for a conifer. Its growth rate is among the fastest of all conifers suitable for bonsai.
Origin. In the wild, Dawn Redwood grows in narrow, humid valleys of central China, along watercourses, on rich, well-drained alluvial soils. Under these conditions it develops imposing trunks with fluted boles and fibrous red-brown bark, reaching over 50 metres in height. Since its rediscovery, it has been planted worldwide as an ornamental tree and is now a familiar presence in European parks and botanical gardens.
A fast-construction bonsai. In bonsai, Metasequoia glyptostroboides is one of the most accessible conifers: its natural vigour allows a thick trunk, a fluted base, and full ramification to be built in a few years — development that other species would take decades to achieve. Its deciduous nature — it drops its needles each autumn — produces a graphic, open winter silhouette reminiscent of the bare giant redwoods. A tree for the patient practitioner who wants to see their bonsai grow quickly.
A botanical ghost returned to life.
What makes it unique. Metasequoia glyptostroboides is one of the rare trees described first as a fossil — known to palaeobotanists for millions of years through rock imprints — before being discovered alive. In 1944, a Chinese forester located a population of several hundred trees in a remote valley on the border of Sichuan and Hubei. The scientific world was astonished: a species considered extinct for five million years was quietly growing in the mountains of central China. Its flat, soft needles, arranged in opposite rows along the shoots, turn a brilliant orange-russet in autumn before falling — a rare behaviour for a conifer. Its growth rate is among the fastest of all conifers suitable for bonsai.
Origin. In the wild, Dawn Redwood grows in narrow, humid valleys of central China, along watercourses, on rich, well-drained alluvial soils. Under these conditions it develops imposing trunks with fluted boles and fibrous red-brown bark, reaching over 50 metres in height. Since its rediscovery, it has been planted worldwide as an ornamental tree and is now a familiar presence in European parks and botanical gardens.
A fast-construction bonsai. In bonsai, Metasequoia glyptostroboides is one of the most accessible conifers: its natural vigour allows a thick trunk, a fluted base, and full ramification to be built in a few years — development that other species would take decades to achieve. Its deciduous nature — it drops its needles each autumn — produces a graphic, open winter silhouette reminiscent of the bare giant redwoods. A tree for the patient practitioner who wants to see their bonsai grow quickly.