Madrone

Okay one more tree, amongst many more, but my feet are itching to move into new territory. Before I go on, I want to pay the majestic Madrone tree its due respect.

The mighty Madrone is one of the north coasts most beautiful trees. The Madrone is an evergreen tree, and it’s green year around. I lifted these photo’s off of the ones that are readily available on the internet, to reflect some of it‘s stages. Although the Madrone is an evergreen tree, it reflects the four seasons with true character, and it easily melds the seasons together in its smooth transition from one phase to another.

In the spring, the Madrone forms large bunches of blossoms that look like bunches of white grapes from afar, and close up each blossom looks like a tiny white Chinese lantern. Later the new leaves start to bud and form, then the new bark grows a new green layer under last years cinnamon orange colored bark.

As the new bark ripens underneath the old bark, the old bark splits and peels away in tiny rolls that look like ringlets in a young girl’s hair. The fresh green bark underneath springs from under the old bark, anxious to bask in the young summer’s sun and gain its own cinnamon tan color.
The new leaves ripen and harden, last years leaves start to lose their green, then mid summer, they turn a creamy yellow. Then as if waiting for a clue from mother nature the leaves await a gentle breeze, then they all flutter in majestic unison to the ground. Leaving the tree it’s bright evergreen color.

The bark curls that are shed in the summer are sometimes collected and used as tea. My wife tells me that if you collect the bark before the rain ruins it, it makes a great fabric dye. In the fall of the year the Madrone berries ripen and they become the favorite food of the hungry Robins returning to our moderate climate for the winter. In the higher elevations the berries become the victim of the wild Bandtail Pigeon.

In the winter the tree becomes the umbrella of the deer, that like to eat its low hanging branches. I can safely say that the Madrone tree is one of the deer’s favorite foods. The Madrone thrives in acid soil, with out many soil nutrients. The tree needs to stay dry in the summer. To irrigate it will cause root rot, and kill it.

The Madrone makes beautiful lumber, but it must be cured by someone that really knows what they are doing. The lumber can warp badly, and it is subject to false post powder beetle blight.

The old-timers used it in their forges for making horseshoes and shoeing horses. Madrone burns hot and clean. It leaves little ash. The only wood that burns hotter and cleaner is Manzanita. It is sad that the Madrone tree is used mostly as firewood, and it is the most expensive wood that you can buy.

There once was a Madrone tree in Ettersburg, called The Council Madrone, that was over one-hundred feet tall and over one-hundred and fifty feet wide. The base of the tree was twelve feet through. It was acknowledged as the largest Madrone tree in the world. A windstorm in 2000 twisted it, and laid it open. The remains of the tree are still sitting there on it's hilltop. It's history as a large tree descends back into legend. The Indian people held council under the tree, and it is rumored that is how the tree got it's name.