The dawn redwood was long thought extinct with the dinosaurs until it was found alive in 1944 in a small area of China, where locals called it the water tree because it typically grew in wet areas. Seeds and cuttings were propagated, and the tree came to be grown all over the world. One of three redwoods, it is the shortest, reaching at least 165 feet. It is related to the native bald cypress but grows faster and taller, up to four feet a year, and lacks the knees that protrude from the ground or water. Both trees are deciduous conifers, turning color in fall, losing their leaves in winter, and producing small round cones. The redwood here was planted in the late '90s, and several nearby bald cypresses are smaller but have knees protruding from the ground, whose function is unknown but may be to stabilize the tree in storms.