Flowers Of Marin

HAPPY 2013!!!! HEY, IS THIS THE FUTURE?!

The bonfire spits and crackles, sending glowing sparks drifting upward. Above and behind these rising embers towers a cluster of dark silhouettes. We are in the middle of a grove of redwoods, ushering the new year in among their timeless company, along with friends and family.

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This isn’t just a beautiful place–it’s a great spot for the reflections on time that the new year so often leads to. Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are some of the most impressive of all the terrific trees in California, with their tall straight trunks and thickly shaggy red bark. Each tree can live to more than 2000 years old. And they are big; often well over 300 feet tall, and as much as 30 feet in diameter. Redwoods are versatile, surviving even after being burned partially through by fire. When cut down or killed, the stump will still have enough energy to send up sprouts that grow into mature trees of their own. This adaptability lends itself to exploration–you can find trees you can walk through because fire burned through them, or groves tens of feet across that will be genetically the same as the long-vanished parent tree.

These trees are home to abundant wildlife, including pileated woodpeckers, marbled murrelets, and spotted owls–as well as other birds, deer, rodents, salamanders, foxes, and more.  Humans have used redwoods for shelter from tribal times until the modern day. Many of the old houses in San Francisco and throughout California were built with old growth redwood logged in 1800s and into the twentieth century; high-quality redwood is now a pricey and scarce commodity. Settlers would use the cavities created in the trunk by wildfires as livestock pens, particularly for geese–giving these fire scars name “goosepens“.

Redwood leaves are of two dramatically different types–they appear to be from totally different types of tree. The “shade leaves” are flat needles about a half an inch long, that stick straight out from either side of the branchlet. They are often the lowest growing, and are semi-deciduous–the tree sheds them regularly, every few years. The “sun leaves” are small and scaly, pressing closely to the branch. These tend to grow higher on the tree and are shed much less often.

These trees are dependent on the fog and rain coming in from the sea–they only grow in a comparatively narrow band along the coast, growing up to 450 miles inland (but no more) from southern Oregon to Monterey. A lot of their water comes from fog drip, and they prefer moister areas–canyons and rain pockets. All of which begs the question–what will become of these majestic survivors as the climate changes?

Tall straight trunks shed shaggy, papery sheaths of bark in the eucalyptus grove. The forest floor is covered with long, sickle-shaped leaves and hard, blue-tinted nuts. Young sprouts–and sprouts from mature trunks–have rounded, blue-gray leaves that are completely from those of mature trees. This is Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus, Tasmanian blue gum): beautiful, flammable and invasive.

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Blue gum was first planted in Marin as a fast-growing windbreaks and for a brief time as a commercial crop (though as far as I know this never was lucrative). As a native to southern Australia, it thrives in California and spreads quickly. No native plants can grow in Eucalyptus stands–either because the leaf litter is so thick, or because they are killed off by the strong-smelling oils the tree produces. The same oils and abundant shedding of bark and leaves can turn these trees into torches during a wildfire, increasing the danger for homes and people nearby; though they are lovely it’s a good idea to cut them down and stop their spread wherever possible.

There are several other species of Eucalyptus that can be found in Marin, but this is the most weedy and common.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

When I was a kid we’d go into the forest by our house and cut down our own Christmas tree. It was always a Doug fir–perhaps a little paler, scrawnier and scragglier than the deep green varieties for sale in a lot. But these wild trees were the most beautiful in my eyes.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) is characterized by branches covered with soft, dense needles. The cones are unique for their “rat tail” bracts, which look like a cartoon silhouette of the legs and tail of a rodent. Young trees have blisters of sap under their thin bark; if you climb them you are likely to get sticky.

This is a versatile survivor of a tree. It thrives in disturbed environments, and can quickly grow to fill meadows and gaps in the forest. It’s the source of the most timber in North America, and is a vibrant part of the ecosystem from BC to central California. The wood is used for  lumber, timbers, and plywood. Great beams are soaked in creosote and used for building piers, pilings, docks and other marine structures. The wood is also made into railroad ties, mine timbers, house logs, posts and poles, flooring, veneer, pulp, and furniture. Birds, rodents, elk, and deer all use Doug fir for food and shelter.

The rat-tail bracts of a Doug fir cone