| Along
the costal hills and valleys of the Pacific Coast, Madrone trees rise, sometimes seemingly
from sheer rock. Often bending and twisting, the trees are distinctive for their
yellow-tinged trunks, peeling red bark and evergreen crowns. Madrone is a Pacific Northwest native growing along
coastal zones, from British Columbia to Baja California. Because it likes dry sites, it
does well in rocky outcrops and bluffs, where the ground drains quickly and sun is most
plentiful.
Up close, these trees, also called
Madrona, almost continually shed their bark, leaving it in curled ribbons that eventually
fall. Trunks and branches bare of bark are silky smooth.
Jody tells us that her "La
Madrona" tree is on a hill not far from Ukiah, California, the county seat of
Mendocino County. |
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