Deciduous

Meeting some of the students from "Religion of Trees" for a turn in Washington Square Park today, we did a double take at the dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). A "living fossil" species considered 150 million years extinct until a survivor was found in China in the 1940s and subsequently brought back to our continent, these romantic trees - only living species in their genus - are interesting also as deciduous conifers. (Yes, not all conifers are evergreen!) This didn't really register when we met them in October, when they were dense pools of soft dark green. Today, we found bare trunks and branches, above a carpet of orange needles. A student found a last memory of green (above) as we realized these unusual trees were comforting us.