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

Example Sentences

Paleobotanists then discovered that millions of years ago, the dawn redwood adapted to its then-warm arctic habitat by dropping its needles in the winter.

From Seattle Times • May 24, 2024

Then in the early 1940s, a Chinese forester discovered an old dawn redwood growing in a central Chinese valley.

From Seattle Times • May 24, 2024

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

The discovery of the Wollemia recalls the find of another fossil tree, the dawn redwood, which resurfaced in the wild in China in the 1940s.

From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2020

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

From Washington Post • Apr. 21, 2015