58. Glover’s Needle Dawn Redwood
Planted less than a century ago, a skyrocketing conifer is playing catchup with one of Worcester’s iconic buildings.
The Glover’s Needle, a prominent Worcester landmark, is an almost impossibly tall and slender church spire. It is all that remains of St Andrew’s church, demolished in the 1940s in favour of a widened road and an ornamental garden in which a dawn redwood grows. In less than 70 years the tree has reached the top of the tower, in another 70 could it reach the tip of the spire?
Species details
Dawn Redwood
Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Where to find it
St Andrew’s, Deansway, Worcester WR1 2ES
///grab.lunch.pool | 52.19099, -2.222567
Dawn redwood notes
Dawn redwood trees were ‘discovered’ growing in a remote corner of south west China in the 1940s. They had of course been known for far longer by those who lived with them and whose families had exploited them for generations.
Scientists, presuming it an extinct species, had named fossilised specimens ‘Metasequoia’ some years before live trees were identified, a nod to the foliage’s resemblance to Sequoia sempervirens, the coastal redwood of California. Unlike that species – the tallest in the world – Metasequoia’s needles fall in the autumn, a rare trait in a conifer, and something not apparent from fossils.
Most sources suggest Metasequoia glyptostroboides is a species that will not attain the height of its giant cousin, but this supposition is based on a tiny native population and one that has been harvested over many centuries by coexisting humans. Perhaps we should not be so sure that rapidly growing dawn redwoods will not surprise us once again in decades and centuries to come.
I know the Glover’s Needle well, but haven’t see it or the accompanying redwood for many a year. It’s looking fine.
I was looking at one of these in the National botanic garden of wales this weekend. There is also a nice one in the old arboretum at Westonbirt. I absolutely love all redwoods.