Metasequoia glyptostroboides

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Some scientific names are great fun to say. When I looked this up on the computer, lots of people love some of my favorites, too. Metasequoia glyptostroboides is a great one to roll off your tongue. I used to say you could have another glass of wine as long as you could flawlessly say that scientific name for Dawn Redwood, which in itself is a fascinating plant, called a living fossil. It was considered long extinct, from one hundred million years ago, until the 1940s when some wonderful botanizers, like our friend John Nelson, collected specimens and Chinese professors realized that this tree was still extant, not extinct. Everyone around the world, well, botanical garden people at least, wanted to plant them and now you can order them off the internet.