Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
Woodlawn Memorial Park University of Guelph St. George’s Anglican Church
This relative of the California Redwoods was first known as a fossil occurring across northern North America and Asia. In 1941 a Chinese forester came upon trees in remote China known locally as shui-sa (water fir) which were later determined to be a living population of Metasequoia. Seeds collected after WWII by request of Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum were distributed in 1948 to universities and arboreta around the world. John Weall, a University of Guelph Horticulture professor and a member of St. George’s congregation is believed to have received seeds from this distribution. He planted the tree himself at St. George’s and likely arranged for the others at the University of Guelph and Woodlawn Memorial Park. They are now the largest Dawn Redwood trees in Guelph.
Dawn Redwood at University of Guelph campus