dawn redwood

American  

[dawn red-wood] / ˈdɔn ˈrɛdˌwʊd /

noun

1. an endangered deciduous conifer, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, the shortest of the three extant species of subfamily Sequoioideae, reaching a height of 150 feet (45.7 meters): known only as widespread Mesozoic fossils until isolated living specimens were discovered in central China in the 1940s.

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dawn redwood British  

noun

1. a deciduous conifer, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, native to China but planted in other regions as an ornamental tree: family Taxodiaceae. Until the 1940s it was known only as a fossil

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Etymology

Origin of dawn redwood

First recorded in 1940–45

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dawn redwood

My brother and his wife live in a wooded section of town, where a dawn redwood is already flourishing on their property.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

They wondered how a dawn redwood, classified as an evergreen, could lose its needles in the fall.

From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024

Other conifers in the fossil flora are the dawn redwood, Metasequoia, and swamp cypress Glyptostrobus.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

The metasequoia, or dawn redwood, entered a sort of plant limbo in the darkness, neither growing nor showing visible signs of decline.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2023

That, he e-mailed back, is a dawn redwood, or as botanists call it, a Metasequoia glyptostroboides.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2015

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