 | 1941: Miki
becomes the first to describe and name the fossil. He names the fossil
Metasequoia by combining the Greek prefix meta, meaning
"akin to," with Sequoia. Later that same year, three unusual
trees are discovered in the Sichuan province of China. |
| 1942: Samples are
collected and sent to Miki but are never successfully identified. |
| 1944: A school principal
in the town asks Tsang Wang of China's Forest Research Center to
investigate the trees. Wang gathers cones and branches, thinking that it
is an ancient specimen of the Chinese swamp cypress. The specimen is later
sent to Professor Cheng at the Department of Forestry at the National
Central University but the results are inconclusive. |
| 1946: Professor
Cheng realizes that the samples represent a new genus. He sends the
specimens to Dr. Hu, the director of Fan Memorial Institute in Beijing.
Dr. Hu makes the connection between the fossil samples of Metasequoia
and living tree. |
| 1947: Dr. Cheng sends Hu
to the area where the samples were collected. More seeds are collected and
analyzed. |
| 1948: Hu and Cheng fully
describe the plant and give it the specific epithet "glyptostroboides"
in honor of its resemblance to Chinese swamp cypress. |
| 1949:
"Bamboo Curtain" descends - no foreigners
are allowed in China until 1980. |
| 1980: American botanists
travel to Hubei province to study the trees. One Metasequoia
still exists in the town of Modaoqi. Estimated age - 450 years. |
| 1981: Upon returning to
the US, the members of the expedition discover that the isolated trees
have a problem: cones are being produced, but with little or no seed
production. |
| Late 1980s: Scientific community
begins efforts to protect China's ancient Metasequoias before they
become extinct. |
