Dawn redwood trees once were believed extinct. The towering trees have been quietly growing in Michigan for decades.

Today, there are 11 dawn redwoods on the Michigan Big Tree Register, a program of the Michigan Botanical Society. The ...

The biggest of northern California’s giant redwood trees grow more than 250 ft. tall, with a circumference greater than 90 ft. at their base. The oldest have seen more than 3,000 years.

These trees are all clones of the parent, and their DNA could be thousands of years old. Redwood cones, oddly enough, are tiny—the size of an olive—and may produce seeds only sporadically.

After the tree was discovered in China ... While considered the smallest of the three redwood varieties, dawn redwoods typically grow between 50 and 60 feet tall, but can reach more than 160 ...

None of the Michigan trees have reached the height or diameter of their Chinese counterparts. The dawn redwood can grow to 140 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter, according to NPS. Compare that to ...