it dominated by Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. This tree 

 occurs in the coastal fog belt of northern California and extends 

 into southern Oregon. The Coast Redwood has rather few other 

 plant species growing with it. Like various species of closed-cone 

 pines, Coast Redwood had a much wider distribution in the geo- 

 logical past than it does at present and should be considered a 

 species that is on its way out in an evolutionary sense. 



Fossil History of Coast Redwood 



The Coast Redwood has an interesting fossil history that was 

 not fully understood until quite recently. In publications deal- 

 ing with the fossil plants of the northern hemisphere, one en- 

 counters statements regarding the Wide distribution of '*red- 

 woods" in the geological past. These redwoods in the fossil 

 record are widely distributed around the northern hemisphere. 

 For many years these fossils were all referred to the genus Sequoia, 

 and most of them were considered to represent very close rela- 

 tives of the modern Coast Redwood. In the early 1940's, how- 

 ever, a Japanese botanist noted that the arrangement of leaves 

 and the cone structure of some of these fossil remains were dif- 

 ferent from those of Coast Redwood. He named the fossils with 

 opposite leaves and stalked cones as a new genus, Metasequoia 

 glyptostroboides (the specific name after Glyptostrobus, a genus 

 of Taxodiaceae related to the redwoods). Re-examination of the 

 fossil redwoods indicated that Metasequoia occurred in North 

 America, Greenland, and Asia, although these fossils had previ- 

 ously been referred to Sequoia. Fossil Sequoia is known from 

 western Europe, Greenland, portions of Asia, and also from North 

 America. 



In the mid 1940's a Chinese forester reported the occurrence 

 of an unusual and previously unknown conifer growing in the 

 province of Szechuan, central China. Subsequent examination of 

 branches of this tree revealed that it was a living plant of Metase- 

 quoia! Thus, the genus was known to science first as a fossil and 

 then was later discovered to be living. A few small groves of 

 Metasequoia were later located in the vicinity of the original 

 "Discovery Tree". The seed that was collected and sent to the 

 United States all originated from this tree, which had survived 



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