Some conifers, like larch and baldcypress, even shed their leaves in the fall like deciduous trees. Conifers were some of the first plants to colonize land over 3 million years ago. They were dominant in tropical forests and fed plant-eating dinosaurs. Some species that were long thought to be extinct have been found to be alive and well in isolated forests. The dawn redwood was discovered in China in 1949, and the Wollemi pine was discovered in Australia in 1994.
Conifers are the largest and tallest living trees.
The tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens , and the oldest tree is thought to be a bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva . The centerpiece of the National Arboretum Conifer Collection is the Gotelli Collection of Dwarf and Slow Growing Conifers.