Flowers Of Marin

Continuing yesterday’s theme–here is an iconic tree of the Pacific Northwest. Western Hemock (Tsuga heterophylla) is a tall, straight-trunked tree that can be identified at a distance by the way its tip droops sideways rather than standing upright. Up close, look for short, round-tipped needles of irregular length (5 to 20 m) that splay out from the twig in several directions. Ain’t it adorable!!

Western Hemlock was used extensively by the northwestern tribes–for medicine and lots of other stuff besides. For example, you can make a black dye by steeping its bark in urine (left on its own, the bark can make a red dye). It can also be used to tan hides. Wood was carved into paddles, spits, spearshafts and more. Dancers in one tribe made much of their outfits from the boughs.

This tree also forms the densest canopy of any tree in the west, according to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. As a result, not many other plants grow underneath–I saw this recently near Arcata, where nothing grew in the understory except a few patches of false Solomon’s seal.

Sadly (luckily?) you’ll have to travel to see a wild specimen of this tree–the only places it grows in California are Humboldt and Del Norte counties (and possibly Trinity).

A strand of fuzzy beads dangles from what looks like a little live-oak tree. These are seeds that grew from the long flowers that bloomed last winter–the male and female flowers cascade in long decorative cascades when in bloom. This is a coast silktassle, or Garrya elliptica. The leaves are leathery and green, with rippled edges. It’s found growing near the coast in California and Oregon. Even though it superficially looks like an oak, the two groups aren’t at all closely related. The silktassle species are in the Garryaceae family, while oaks are in the Fabaceae.

Silktassle is also known as quinine bush, as early settlers used the bitter bark and leaves as a substitute for quinine. The berries were also used to make a grey or black dye. But besides these few tidbits, there is very little information about the medicinal uses of this interesting tree.

Look for wavy, inrolled leaf margins with a dense white fuzz on the underside of the leaf to tell this plant from other species of silktassle. It’s also the one most likely to be seen near the coast.