This tree is a dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) – as is its near twin beside it.
I am fond of these trees – they were abundant in my neighborhood in Goyang City, South Korea, where they’re planted all over as ornamentals. They are strange trees – they closely resemble the redwoods I grew up among in northern California (although smaller), but they like to lose all their needles in winter, like deciduous trees.
Here are some dawn redwoods in Ilsan, Korea, in the snow. I took this picture in January, 2017.
I ordered these seedlings as an experiment to see if a mail-order tree could survive the unusually long shipment time to this island. I think it might work out – they arrived in a damaged shipping tube, but were seemingly intact and healthy when I opened it up. If they survive, I might buy some other exotics to plant around my lot. I like trees – you might never have guessed that, right?
Incidentally, the company I bought these seedlings from (Jonsteen Company) was founded by a guy I went to high school with, and the company is headquartered in Humboldt County, where I grew up. Jon and I graduated in the same class. He was a very popular guy, and a musician, and an athlete – all things I wasn’t, in high school. But he was always kind to me. Once he let me drive his corvette.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km]