Cape Champion/Story Tree

Latrobe Drive and St John Rd

Sometimes a great story tree is also a champion.  This 3’+ diameter 70’+ tall Dawn Redwood is one of a kind In the Cape and probably on the Broadneck peninsula.  Longtime Cape resident Marie Dunmeyer planted this tree in her yard 50 years ago.  She purchased the seedling when it was only a few feet tall at Evergreen Nursery for $30 in 1972.   It was the most expensive plant she ever bought.   Marie bought the tree because she had become intrigued by the story of the rediscovery of the dawn redwood in China.   

Long thought to be extinct, the Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) was rediscovered deep in a valley in central China in the 1940s. The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University then distributed seeds across the world, playing a big role in the tree’s international conservation.    A living fossil, this tree was found in North America until the last ice age!   The Dawn Redwood is in the sequoia family and one of only 3 species of redwood in the world.  It is a deciduous conifer, which means it is one of a few species of conifer (think pine cones) that sheds its needles in the winter.   Marie is very proud of her tree and how it has grown and thinks that it is a magnificent tree.  We totally agree!