Dawn Redwood Cones

Metasequoia glyptostroboides

6×8″ Dawn redwood cone ink, lichen ink, and pen on paper

I fell in love with the dawn redwood tree on Burton Lawn years before becoming a student at Smith College. Its towering form and deeply furrowed trunk felt ancient and awe-inspiring. The cones depicted here are from that very tree, a state champion planted in 1948 from seeds shared with the Smith College Botanic Garden after the species was rediscovered in China in the 1940s. Once believed extinct for over 150 million years, the dawn redwood is a deciduous conifer, shedding its soft, feathery needles each fall. It grows quickly and can reach immense heights, with a fluted trunk and wide buttressed roots that give it a prehistoric presence: an enduring reminder of resilience and deep time.