City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/75614
The dawn redwood had long been known old found in almost all parts of the world. There was no reason to believe that it was still alive and well but, miraculously, a few specimens were discovered by a surveying party in 1941 around a paddyfield in the Hupeh Province of China. Botanists acquired speci- mens some three years later, and seed was gathered by the Arnold Arboretum in Boston in 1947 and made available to the world in 1948. as a fossil tree from rocks 80 -100 million years Although a deciduous conifer, the romance associ- ated with its re-discovery, together with the ease with which it could be propagated from cuttings and estab- lished, particularly in the slightly warmer areas of the continent, meant that it almost instantly became a European 'celebrity' tree. No park or large estate, either urban or rural, was complete without one. In The Netherlands, however, the qualities of the tree meant that it could also be deployed in other urban situations. Metasequoia glyptostroboides consistently creates a dense, vegetative spire (forked trees are very rare), and this attribute, coupled with the fact that the crown is quite happy to be lifted to create a clean bole, and that the tree turns out to be tolerant of some aerial-borne vehicular pollution, meant that it could be used as a very striking street tree. Some of the main streets in the residential areas of Amsterdam North, for example, proved to be ideal. There was the space for the trees to establish and the water table was high enough to assist rapid establish- ment, and thus the trees quickly became an 'iconic' aspect of the urban forest of the area. From a design point of view, the autumn colours of the deciduous foliage, turning from pinkish yellow through to brick-red and, in good years, a deep ruby red, contrasts well with the essential brick-construct- ed residential areas of parts of Amsterdam North. This is further complimented by using claret ash (Fraxinus angustifolia subsp. oxycarpa 'Raywood') as a street tree in adjoining smaller streets to complete the riot of autumn colour. The Dutch use of the dawn redwood as a street tree is an excellent example of how the urban forest is developing and expanding in Europe to accommo- date the realities of climate change, an increasingly designed urban environment, and the demands of urban people for a better quality environment. These are qualities that many indigenous species of trees might find hard to deliver. —Alan Simson, Reader in Landscape Architecture + Urban Forestry, Head of Research + Enterprise, Leeds School of Art, Architecture + Design, Leeds Metropolitan University The foliage of dawn redwood is oppositely arranged. Dawn redwood in the more usual setting of an urban park