Hey, Stig! Thanks for the links. In the Wikipedia article, it looks like the Dawn Redwood was actually rediscovered by Chinese foresters prior to the outbreak of WWII. The mission to acquire samples had to wait until after the war was over. Here's a quote from the article:
"In 1941 a forester named Kan, while performing a survey in Sichuan and Hubei provinces, happened across an enormous tree — as it turned out, an individual of Metasequoia — and recognized it to be special. In 1943, two more discoveries further brought Metasequoia to light: Chan Wang (1911–2000), a Chinese forestry official, also happened across an individual (said to have been the very tree that Kan had seen) and collected samples from it.[2] These samples were determined to belong to a tree as yet unknown to science. However, in the same year, a second discovery was made that ended up being supremely relevant: Shigeru Miki (1901–1974) of Kyoto University, studying fossil samples of the family Cupressaceae, isolated a divergent leaf form that led him to describe a new genus, which he named Metasequoia, meaning "like a sequoia." Only in 1946 was the connection made between Miki's new genus and the living samples identified by Kan and Wang.[2] Professor Hu Xiansu (1894–196
is credited with making this important connection, and providing the specific epithet "glyptostroboides," after its resemblance to the Chinese swamp cypress (Glyptostrobus).[3] (For the record, Hu Xiansu lived from 1894 to 1968; I don't know why the little guy with the sunglasses shows up to obscure the information.)
Plus this:
"In 1948 the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University funded an expedition to collect seeds and, soon after, distributed seeds and seedlings to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials."
Thanks for the links, and the link to your photographs. Really nice. I have a question, as I looked at your photos, but so far have not yet read through that entire thread. Were those trees you were climbing Sequoia sempervirens, also called the coast redwood, or were they Sequoiadendron giganteum, also known as the Giant Sequoia?
It's pretty cool that the Giant Redwood seems to grow pretty well in Norway. Exciting stuff, even if you'll never live to see them get really huge. Do you think that it is at all possible for them to get anywhere near as big as they do in California, given enough time? Or do you think that there are aspects of the climate that just will not allow that to happen?
Thanks again for any comments you choose to chime in with.
Tim