Dawn Redwood

Handy Gardening Secrets trees  


Dawn Redwood

The Dawn Redwood tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, is a deciduous conifer, with soft needle-like leaves that look like evergreens, but are bright green in the spring and brilliant orange/red in the fall. The needles are shed in the cold season of winter. Dawn Redwood trees are a very ornamental and interesting large tree, one of the few deciduous conifers in the world. It is feathery pyramidal in form with a straight, fluted trunk. It grows very fast to 40’ and can grow to 70’. The bark is red- brown, fissured and exfoliating in long strips. It is a beautiful and stately tree, well suited for large areas. It makes a very effective, fast growing screen, perfect as a long driveway alley. This tree does best in full sun and when provided with adequate moisture. The Dawn Redwood has been called "a living fossil" because it was first discovered in Japan in 1941 and then found growing in the wild in China. The species is over 50 million years old. It is a very hardy tree and tolerates windy sites. ... details

 

Mockernut Hickery The Mockernut Hickory tree, Carya tomentosa, is also called a White Hickory, Whiteheart Hickory, Hognut and Bullnut. The gray bark of this tree is marked with branching ridges and deep furrows. Mockernut hickory is so named because the nuts are large but with thick shells and very small kernels. The twigs are stout and reddish-brown to grayish-brown in color. This tree grows well on rich, moist, well-drained soils of upland areas. Mockernut Hickory trees grow throughout most of the eastern United States and westward to eastern Texas. It is most common in the southern part of its range. As with the Shagbark Hickory, the wood of this tree is hard, strong, tough and elastic, and is used in handles for tools and in athletic equipment. The unusually small kernels from the nuts are sweet and edible. It is long lived, sometimes reaching the age of 500 years. This and the other hickories are very desirable both for forest and shade trees.

Dawn Redwood