Golden Gate Park | USA | Plants

A fast-growing, deciduous conifer with feathery, opposite pinnate branches—unique among large conifers for dropping leaves in autumn. In Golden Gate Park it is planted as an ornamental specimen and is conspicuous when its lacy foliage turns russet in fall.

Deciduous conifer with opposite, pinnate feathery leaflets; smooth orange-brown young bark and papery cones; loses leaves in late autumn making habit and branch pattern obvious.

Common Confusions

• Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens Coast redwood is evergreen with awl-like leaves, while dawn redwood has opposite, feathery deciduous leaves and autumn color.
• Bald Cypress Taxodium distichum Bald cypress is also deciduous and feathery but has different bark texture and often grows in wetter soils with pneumatophores; dawn redwood has smoother, orange-brown bark and opposite leaf arrangement.
• Leyland Cypress × Cuprocyparis leylandii Leyland cypress is evergreen with dense scaly foliage, not the fine, feathery, deciduous foliage of dawn redwood.
• Japanese Cedar Cryptomeria japonica Cryptomeria is evergreen with spirally arranged needles and different cone shape versus dawn redwood's opposite leaf pairs.
• Monkey Puzzle Tree Araucaria araucana Araucaria has stiff, triangular leaves arranged spirally on branches; dawn redwood has soft, flat, feathery leaves.