The dawn redwood was known only from fossils until 1941, when foresters in western China found a living grove that nobody in the West believed still existed. Seeds went out to botanical gardens and universities worldwide starting in 1948, and this tree is one result of that shipment. It was planted in 1965 in the courtyard of McGill's newly-opened Stewart Biology Building by C. Darnley Gibbs, the botany professor who filled the sheltered space with specimen trees. The tree beside it, a katsura from the same planting, is on this list too. Montreal's own remarkable-tree register calls this one probably the largest dawn redwood in Quebec, its trunk forking into two stems, the wider more than a metre round. It should not be confused with an older dawn redwood across town at Mount Royal Cemetery, planted in 1949 as a memorial and stunted by the local climate into a low, sprawling shrub barely three metres tall. This one, in a sheltered courtyard and sixteen years younger, has grown into a proper tree with real height. Only one source has been found for this specimen so far, Montreal's own register. A second is still being looked for, and if you know more about it, tell us.
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Getting there
Courtyard of the Stewart Biology Building, McGill University, near 1205 Avenue du Docteur-Penfield, downtown Montreal
You can recognise it by the forked trunk, the wider stem over a metre round, and its feathery foliage, unusual among conifers in dropping every autumn. It stands in the same courtyard as the McGill Katsura, planted the same year.
McGill University campus. Stands in the same interior courtyard as mtl_013, the McGill Katsura, between the two wings of the Stewart Biology Building. See mtl_013's access note: reached via a path from Docteur-Penfield Avenue per a published visiting guide to its courtyard companion; campus grounds open in daylight, this specific courtyard's gating outside class hours not independently confirmed this pass.
McGill metro station (Green Line), about 10-12 minute walk uphill via Peel Street or McTavish; also reachable via Peel or 144/24 bus routes on Sherbrooke
Autumn colour
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.
- In the official register: Arbres remarquables du Mont-Royal (Ville de Montreal, site officiel du Mont-Royal)
- montroyal.montreal.ca
