The History of the Discovery and Initial Seed Dissemination of Metasequoia Glyptostroboides, a "Living Fossil"

A review of the typification of Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Taxodiaceae)

“…One of the most significant botanical discoveries of the twentieth century was the description of the "Living Fossil", Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu & Cheng from China (Hu, 1948;Hu & Cheng 1948;Merrill, 1948a, b;Fulling, 1976;Ma & Shao, 2003). This discovery was reported throughout the world (Fulling, 1976;Ma, 2003Ma, , 2004. Through the efforts of W. C. Cheng, H. H. Hu, E. D. Merrill, R. W. Chaney and C. T. Hwa, the seeds of M. glyptostroboides were sent to gardens and arboreta throughout the world (Fulling, 1976;Ma, 2003Ma, , 2004.…”

“…Through the efforts of W. C. Cheng, H. H. Hu, E. D. Merrill, R. W. Chaney and C. T. Hwa, the seeds of M. glyptostroboides were sent to gardens and arboreta throughout the world (Fulling, 1976;Ma, 2003Ma, , 2004. Besides the native populations from China, living material is now known to be cultivated in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America (Ma, 2003(Ma, , 2004.…”

“…Hu and Cheng (1948) did not indicate a herbarium in which the specimens were conserved, but noted that Hsueh's material consists of "flowers and cones without foliage shoots", i.e., pollen cones and seed cones; and that Hwa's material consists of "cones with foliage shoots". Ma, 2003Ma, , 2004.…”