Abstract
The story of the establishment of the fossil genus Metasequoia Miki in 1941 by the Japanese paleobotanist S. Miki and the discovery and classification of the living Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng (Dawn Redwood) in 1946–1948 by Professors H. H. Hu and W.C. Cheng are well known. In addition, the efforts of Elmer D. Merrill of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and paleontologist Ralph Chaney of the University of California, Berkeley to collect and disperse M. glyptostroboides seeds throughout the world have been carefully chronicled. But what is not well-known is the story of how Wilhelm Gunther (1893–1983), a German national who lived and worked in China between 1914 and 1941, acquired seeds in the late 1920s that decades later would be identified as those of M. glyptostroboides. Drawing from historical and contemporary photographs as well as interviews with Gunther’s daughters, this essay unravels the odyssey of these M. glyptostroboides seeds that possibly predate the discovery of the native population in China.
Key words
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
6. References Cited
Chaney, R.W. 1948. As remarkable as discovering a living dinosaur: Redwoods in China. Natural History Magazine: 47: 440–444.
Hsueh C.-J. 1985. Reminiscences of collecting the type specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides. Arnoldia 45: 10–18.
Hu, H.H. 1948. How Metasequoia, the ‘Living Fossil,’ was discovered in China. Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 49: 201–207.
Hu, H.H. & W.C. Cheng. 1948. On the new family Metasequoiaceae and on Metasequoia glyptostroboides, a living species of the genus Metasequoia found in Szechuan and Hupeh. Bulletin of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology, New Series 1: 153–161.
Krammer, A. 1997. Undue Process: The Untold Story of America’s German Alien Internees. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland.
Merrill, E.D. 1948. Another ‘Living Fossil’ comes to the Arnold Arboretum. Arnoldia 8: 1–8.
Miki, S. 1941. On the change of flora in eastern Asia since the Tertiary period (I). The clay or lignite beds flora in Japan with special reference to the Pinus trifolia beds in central Hondo. Japanese Journal of Botany 11: 237–303.
Pittsburgh Press. 1948. Dinosaur-age tree seeds from China to grow here. Pittsburgh Press, January 29, 1948.
Richardson, E.A. 1995. Dawn Redwood—The road not taken. Newsletter of the Connecticut Botanical Society 23: 3–4.
Silverman, M. 1948, Science makes a spectacular discovery. San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, March 25, 1948.
Vann, D.R., C.J. Williams & B.A. LePage. 2003. Experimental evaluation of photosystem parameters and their role in the evolution of stand structure and deciduousness in response to paleoclimate seasonality in Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Hu et Cheng). Pp. 431–449. In A. Hemsley & I. Poole (eds.). The Evolution of Plant Physiology: From Whole Plants to Ecosystems. Elsevier, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Litoff, J.B. (2005). Gunther’s Travels: The Odyssey of Metasequoia Seeds from the 1920s?. In: LePage, B.A., Williams, C.J., Yang, H. (eds) The Geobiology and Ecology of Metasequoia. Topics in Geobiology, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2764-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2764-8_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-2631-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2764-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)