There are three kinds of true redwoods alive today. Two are native to California: - *Sequoiadendron giganteum*, the Giant Sequoia, is the most massive tree in the world. - *Sequoia sempervirens*, the coast redwood, is the tallest tree in the world. The third was thought to be extinct, until it was discovered in central China: - *Metasequoia glyptostroboides*, the dawn redwood (my second-favorite tree) ![[Pasted image 20230727224557.jpg]] The above dawn redwood is in the San Francisco botanical garden. I was walking around searching for the tree (which was marked on the map), but I didn't see anything resembling a redwood until I looked up and noticed that the beautiful, unusually vivid yellow-green leaves on the tree above me were shaped exactly like the coast redwood's. I think the correct term for those leaves is *pinnate*, meaning that they emerge from either side of a stem in a single plane. Redwoods are members of the cypress family, *Cupressaceae*. They have stringy bark (as do most cypresses). Dawn and coast redwoods have flat, thin leaves, and giant sequoias have awl-shaped (pointy) leaves. Dawn redwoods are one of few deciduous conifers. I tried to grow a dawn redwood from seeds once, but was unsuccessful. You have to refrigerate the seeds for a couple of weeks in damp soil, but nothing had germinated even after a month of waiting. According to the Internet, cones should be fresh (mine wasn't), but I don't really see how seeds germinate in the wild if this is true. ![[Pasted image 20230727225639.jpg]]