Pitch used to go fishing before the sun rose and then retire to the shade before it became strong. One day he was late and had just reached the beach when he melted. Other people rushed to share him. Douglas-fir arrived first and secured most of the pitch, which he poured over his head and body. Grand fir obtained only a little and by the time Arbutus arrived there was none left. Therefore, Arbutus has no pitch to this day. — Coastal Salish tale.
The madrone – or sometimes called madrona – is a distinctive tree of the west coast that inhabits southern British Columbia through coastal California. It is a broad-leaved, evergreen tree. Unlike deciduous trees that lose their leaves and go dormant in the winter, the madrone has leaves all year, but at the height of summer it loses a proportion of its older leaves. Younger trees and branches have a smooth trunk and an orange-red peeling bark, white flowers and reddish berries. Older trees have a distinctive rough bark on the primary stem. The bark on younger trunks and branches “peels” as new bark is formed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_4xROwkpIQ
These trees can grow to between 80 and 125 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 24 to 48 inches. Larger trees can be up to 400 years old. On good sites it can grow straight and tall while on marginal soils it puts up multiple shoots and can appear to be a tall shrub. These trees will grow towards the light, leaning up to 20 degrees or so. Madrones prefer warm, dry sites on south and west aspects.
It tolerates warm and dry conditions better than most northwest tree species. It is, however, not very tolerant of frost/freezing weather. It is a common tree of dry, coastal bluffs. The species produces seeds as early as 3 to 5 years old. Most madrones produce seed every year within a “berry” and a single berry holds about 20 seeds. A number of birds and mammals forage on the seeds – the one in my yard was a favorite foraging site for robins, cedar waxwings, band-tailed pigeons, and the non-native European starling (hate that bird!). Deer will browse on berries and young shoots. Because it always carries leaves it can provide some protection from the elements for roosting birds.
he “madrone canker” is a common fungus found on older trees that causes dieback of branches from the tip or scars on the trunk or large branches. Many older trees have visible cankers, but they seem to just keep plugging along unless overly stressed, which often gives them a scraggly appearance and folks often think they are dying. This past winter we had a couple colder bouts in Puget Sound that were followed by a wet and cold spring – this combination hit the urban madrones of Seattle pretty hard and a number of older trees were lost.
Sadly, this included the beautiful specimen on my lot in north Seattle. This tree was about 110 ft tall with a dbh (diameter at breast height) of 34 inches. This year it just did not put out any new leaves and the old ones turned black and withered. After visits by an arborist and a disease specialist – and some waiting and hoping, we decided to take it down. I did feel a bit better when after it was felled there was a large hole in the trunk at the base and most of the below ground trunk was hollow – yikes!
I did sell the two big boles to a tree salvage company but bargained to get a slab for woodworking. The tree will dry and not be milled for a year, then cut and stacked, and then finally kiln dried. I’m in the database to get my slab in early 2020!!
One of the neighborhoods in Seattle is called Magnolia. It sits on a high bluff along Puget Sound and has a good population of madrones along the bluff. In 1857 Lt. George Davidson mistook the madrones on the bluff for magnolias, of which he was more familiar. The name stuck. Madrone is from the Spanish madrona, or strawberry tree, because the berries of the madrone reminded Father Juan Crespi of the 1769 Portola expedition of the Spanish strawberry tree when he came across it in Monterey Bay. Archibald Menzies, a botanist who came to the Pacific Northwest with Capt. George Vancouver, described it in detail and is honored in the species name menziesii.
The genus Arbutus appears to be derived from the Roman name of a group of similar plants. Lewis and Clark first made an entry on the tree on December 1, 1805, while along the Columbia River: ..the tree which bears a red burry in clusters of a round form and size of a red haw. the leaf like that of the small magnolia, and brark smoth and of a brickdust red coulour it appears to be of the evergreen kind.— half after one oclock Drewyer not yet arrived. heard him shoot 5 times just above us and am in hopes he has fallen in with a gang of elk.
And finally, an ode to madrone by Bret Harte, who was a writer/poet (1836-1902). Some of his works were made into films including Tennessee’s Partner (1955) that stared Ronald Reagan!MADRONO by Bret Harte CAPTAIN of the Western wood,
Thou that apest Robin Hood !
Green above thy scarlet hose,
How thy velvet mantle shows !
Never tree like thee arrayed,
O thou gallant of the glade! When the fervid August sun
Scorches all it looks upon,
And the balsam of the pine
Drips from stem to needle fine,
Round thy compact shade arranged,
Not a leaf of thee is changed! When the yellow autumn sun
Saddens all it looks upon,
Spreads its sackcloth on the hills,
Strews its ashes in the rills,
Thou thy scarlet hose dost doff,
And in limbs of purest buff
Challengest the sombre glade
For a sylvan masquerade. Where, oh, where, shall he begin
Who would paint thee, Harlequin ?
With thy waxen burnished leaf,
With thy branches’ red relief,
With thy polytinted fruit,–
In thy spring or autumn suit,–
Where begin, and oh, where end,
Thou whose charms all art transcend?