The Arnold Arboretum has installed a plaque in front of the Hunnewell Building honoring Hu Xiansu, the botanist credited as the father of modern Chinese botany and the scientist who identified the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). The tribute coincides with the centennial of Hu earning his doctorate from Harvard in 1925, marked by a December 2025 virtual symposium featuring Arboretum director Ned Friedman, China National Botanical Garden chief scientist Ma Jinshuang, Hu’s granddaughter Hu Xiaojiang, and several Harvard scholars. The symposium and the article that followed explore the deep ties between Harvard and China that Hu helped establish, as well as the collaborative scientific effort behind the dawn redwood’s rediscovery and spread to gardens worldwide.
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