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Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) |
Here are some of my pictures of the single specimen at the Göteborg Botanical Gardens. It was exciting when I found it there on my first visit ever to the Botanical Gardens. Prior to the visit I had been researching Metasequoia as a result of the uncovered giant trees found at the north pole on Axel Heiberg Island some couple decades back and the studies of not only the tree, but also what the climate was like to have such an incredible forest of these giants along with countless other biodiverse living organisms. There is a large stump field right where the trees actually grew after what was described by some as a mega-tsunami which destroyed life there by snapping the trees off their trunks and burying them under massive amounts of sediment which apparently flash froze. Sounds like a "The Day After Tomorrow" scenario of sorts doesn't it ? They estimate in an area called the Buchanon Lake Formation there are some 10,000+ logs and other debris buried there. But the truly amazing thing is that the evidence of this ancient world is still somewhat fresh. The wood still burns and so would the cones, leaves, twigs and branches they have unearthed as a result of further global warming revealing this treasure. None of this is petrified wood as in other fossils caches. Just extremely well preserved organic matter. I'll post a further references pages on this subject below.
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(PHOTO BY LYN ANGLIN/NRCAN) |
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Image - virtualmuseum.ca |
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Image - David Greenwood |
Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia) Göteborg Botanical Gardens |
The upper tree canopy of the Metasequoia |
Dawn Redwood - Göteborg Sweden |
Metasequoia Leaves |
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Dr. Ken Hooper Virtual Natural History Museum Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre, Canada |
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Fall Colouration |
Dawn Redwood Grove in Fall Colour |
This tree would be a challenge to grow in many of the drier locations on Earth, but possible given enough water and the proper biological organisms makeup of the soil they are in. The Los Lunas, New Mexico Nursery "Trees The Please" which is just south of Albuquerque is an excellent example of growing such trees in an otherwise challenging soil and climate environment. Please review some of the important and informative links below for further understanding of proper soil requirements and the ability to change saline and badly alkaline soils into a rich forested habitat by using biological processes which have the ability to digest, redistribute and to recreate the Earth into something extremely productive. Keep in mid that not everyone is on board with turning wastelands into natural productive ecosystems. Many environmental groups become viciously indignant at the very thought of changing the status quo of any untouched wildland for the better. The Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona and one of it's main leaders and spokeman, Kieran Suckling viciously attack author, Fred Pearce, who wrote a wonderful article in E360-Yale back in 2013 about the transformation of a true desert island, Ascension Island in the south Atlantic. Over 100+ years ago sailors & a well known British Botanist had brought and planted various plants on the bare island which moved up the mountain slopes and created a cloud forest. Previously little rain fell, but now they get precipitation and running streams where there was once nothing. The reason for the environmentalist anger ? They claimed certain native lichens, mosses, desert ferns and other small perennials would be wiped out by these non-native invaders. Many comments I read in the comments section were like, "If Nature wanted a forest there, it would have evolved one". This is such complete nonsense. A major study of how the island tramsformed itself could be used as a foundation stone for building up other desert ecosystems and restoration of areas ruined by land misuse.
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image by Arno Gourdol (Dec 22, 2008) Borrego badlands from Font's Point |
See this beautiful although lifeless looking badland area above ??? It's in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Southern california near where I grew up and lived for some 30+ years. I was attacked by the Southern California Desert Protective Council (now a defunct oranization) who were livid that I would suggest turning lifeless Anza Borrego badlands into protective native plant ecosystem. There are many environmental groups out there who feel exactly the same way and believe they know how Science should be used and what Earth needs, but the reality is they are mainly obsessed with a political ideology and a secular worldview that views other humans as a threat to the natural world. I call it, "David Attenborough Syndrome" who called all 'humans beings the plague of the earth' which has been parroted within scientific and environmental organizations for the re-implimentation of Eugenics programs of sterilization and increased abortions. Of course the followers of such groups never view themselves as part of that threat either, because the main focus is always on their opponents. In any event, I hope this spotlight on Metasequoia helpful and shows how much further humans have to go as far as learning about nature if they really intend on improving the earth. Here's the post I wrote on that very subject of the creation of a new earth.
Tardigrades: pioneers in creating a new Earth ?
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REFERENCES:
Plant of the Month: Dawn Redwood
The Arboretum Tomé - Education Center
http://www.dawnredwood.org/
University of Cambridge Botanic Garden & Dawn Redwood
http://www.metasequoia.org/
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE “LIVING FOSSIL” METASEQUOIA GLYPTOSTROBOIDES (TAXODIACEAE): A REVIEW (1943–2003)