Dawn Redwood

One of the delights of Burlington Campground is that it is immediately adjacent to the Humboldt Redwoods State Park Visitors Center. We took advantage of the proximity this afternoon to be the only two visitors on Ranger Codi’s interpretive talk along the Gould Grove Nature Loop. She not only gave us a refresher on Coast Redwoods biology but branched out and discussed other plants in the redwoods ecosystem. Redwood Sorrel, Maidenleaf Fern, Trail Plant on the floor of the forest, and California Bay Laurel and Big Leaf Maple trees all have a part in the story of the forest. And there are burls. They’re part of a tree’s defensives and a beautiful part of the wood, a target for poachers. Codi noted that they are life clouds, you can find shapes in them. She pointed out some of her favorites. But we were captivated before we even left the visitors center. In a garden there are specimens of all three species of redwoods, the Coast Redwood, the tallest, the Sequoia, the biggest, and the Dawn Redwood, the most ancient. The Dawn Redwood is prevalent in the fossil record and was believed to be extinct until the 1940s when groves were discovered in remote area of China. Professor Ralph Chaney of Save the Redwoods traveled to China in 1948 to study the tree. Today there are many specimens in California, throughout China, and in many parts of the world. It’s a living fossil!