Dawn Redwood

Otterhound · #1 10-18-2017, 07:52 PM

Trip to get groceries ended up with me grabbing some of this wood in tree form . 4 decently sized examples on my truck . I have not seen any of this species as anything but a tree before . Guess I'll find out soon enough . Since this is purely experimental , I will be doing both flatsawn and quartersawn cutting .

Truckjohn · #2 10-18-2017, 07:54 PM

Where do you find this stuff? You come up with some really cool wood...

For me... Hey - another pine tree... No look.... Another pine tree.. Oh.. Look... A pine tree....

Tricked you!! It's a Pine tree!!!

nacluth · #3 10-18-2017, 08:05 PM

Cool. I planted a sapling in front of my house 13 years ago. It’s now about 30’ tall with about an 8” trunk. I can’t really imagine any big lumber coming off of it in my lifetime, but it could potentially get to be harvestable size for a guitar - if that was a better use than it’s being a tree.

RP · #4 10-18-2017, 08:06 PM

As an aside, my alma mater is home to two of the tallest and oldest dawn redwoods in the US...

Dawn Redwood is a large Chinese tree, a deciduous conifer, somewhat like Baldcypress (Taxodium). It was first known only from the fossil record but was found growing wild in a remote area of China in 1941. Some of the first Metasequoia planted in the United States are on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. These trees, now over 100 feet tall, were grown from seed collected in China and sent back in 1948 from Belgium by the late Dr. J.T. Baldwin...

Otterhound · #5 10-18-2017, 08:10 PM

I have seen these trees for years . The grocery store where they were located is also a nursery/garden center . They were planted in 1984 .
There is a very nice example of one of these about 3 blocks from me in town . When you approach town from the south on the Fruitville Pike , you can see this tree clearly to the right over top of everything around it . I believe that there are others in town , but this one is the largest/tallest . Their pyramidal shape is distinctive and easy to spot . The Dawn Redwood should easily grow where you are . They have been widely planted .