Netarts Bay Today - Greenish Flowers

Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii
Douglas-fir, Oregon Pine
British Columbia to California
Family Pinaceae
Native

Douglas-fir, Oregon’s state tree and prominently displayed on vehicle standard license plates, is not a true fir in the genus Abies, nor is it a hemlock as the genus suggest (Pseudotsuga means “false hemlock”), or a pine as indicated by some of its common names. It is given its own genus based on its cone that has unique three-pointed bracts extending beyond the broader scales. These cones hang downward instead of pointing upward as do fir cones. Douglas-fir is the main timber tree of Oregon, with wood that is strong, hard (though it is classed as a softwood tree), durable, and used in everything from construction lumber and plywood to paper. It is also a favorite Christmas tree. It is an evergreen conifer, meaning it does not lose its leaves in the fall. Its needles are about an inch long, spirally arranged on the twig, pointed on the ends, with two white bands of stomata on the undersides. Bark is grayish with resin blisters in young trees and reddish brown with deep furrows in older trees. Old-growth trees may reach 300 feet tall and six feet in diameter, but few of these giants are left in Oregon.

The names, both scientific and common, honor two early botanists: David Douglas, a Scottish biologist who explored the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s, and Archibald Menzies, another Scot who discovered the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791 as part of a British Naval expedition.

Young Douglas-fir

Female cone with three-pointed bracts.

Young female cones

Bark

Abies grandis
Grand Fir, Lowland White Fir
British Columbia to California
Family Pinaceae
Native

The Grand Fir is the only true fir found in our area, but it is not common. It can be a large tree, over 200 feet tall and five feet in diameter, but is usually smaller. It is harvested for pulp and timber, but its wood is weaker than Douglas-fir and not resinous, so it is prone to rot. It is a favorite Christmas tree with a fragrant piney smell, and its aromatic properties provided medicinal uses for Native Americans. Its needles are arranged to face on opposite sides if the twig. Each needle is shinny green on the upper side with a central groove, and there are two white lines of stomata on the lower side. Its bark gray with resin blisters. The cones grow upright near the top of the tree. They fall apart at maturity while still attached to the tree to disperse their seeds leaving only a vertical inner core.

Grand Fir foliage

Grand Fir needles

Grand Fir needles (bottom)

Pinus contorta var. contorta
Shore Pine, Lodgepole Pine
Alaska to Northern California
Family Pinaceae
Native

One of the most common conifers bordering Netarts Bay, the Shore Pine is a coastal tree that ranges only a few miles inland from the ocean. It is a variety of the Lodgepole Pine that grows inland mountains of much of North America. The species is the only native two-needle pine in Oregon, and the specific name describes the slight twist, or contortion, the needles, generally less than three inches long, display in relation to each other. You can see this twist in the adjacent photograph. The cones, usually less than two inches long, have prickly bracts that are tightly packed together (a closed-cone pine) that open to release seeds only when heated by fire (the tree is fire dependent). The seeds, however, are a favorite of squirrels, especially in our area the Douglas’ Tree Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii), which will pull apart the bracts to retrieve the seeds. The male flowers produce copious amounts of pollen in the spring which, when distributed by the wind, coats cars, decks, roofs, and any horizontal surface, and is the source of many seasonal allergies. The tree, while often tall with the long straight trunks of its mountain cousins, is more frequently sprawling and irregular with little commercial value. It does stabilize dunes and coastal hills.

Pine Galls
On the branches of some Shore Pines are bulbous swellings called galls or cankers. These are caused by Endocronartium harknessii, a rust fungus that grows in the vascular cambium (a growth layer) producing an overabundance of xylem, a vascular tissue that transports water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves. The yellow encrustation is composed of spores that can infect neighboring trees.

Trees

Contorted Needles

Male Flowers

Female Cones

Bark

Shore Pine gall

Shore Pine gall rust

Shore Pine gall rust cross section

Pinus muricata
Bishop Pine
California and Baja California
Family Pinaceae
Non-Native

At the base of Netarts Spit, along a spit access road at the north end of the campground in Cape Lookout State Park, grows a non-native pine that I believe is the Bishop Pine, a rather rare pine from a few coastal spots in California and Baja California that was probably planted by early homesteaders. It is a small, two-needle, closed-cone pine with longer more grayish needles than the Shore Pine as can be seen in the picture of the two side by side. The cones of the Bishop Pine are reflexed backward down the branch. The tree appears to be increasing in numbers and gradually spreading along the base of the spit. The original tree describing this species was found near a monastery at San Louis Obispo, hence the name “Bishop Pine.”

Male flowers

Shore Pine left; Bishop Pine right

Female cones (flowers)

Picea sitchensis
Sitka Spruce
Alaska to Northern California
Family Pinaceae
Native

The Sitka Spruce thrives in the cool, moist, foggy environments of the Oregon coast and is not found more than a few miles inland in North America south of British Columbia but does range farther inland in Canada and Alaska. The southern extent of its range is Casper, California in Mendocino county where I remember seeing it as a kid. It is a fast-growing tree that can reach heights of more than 300 feet and diameters greater than 15 feet. Oregon’s largest, about 800 years old, is at Cape Meares State Scenic Area and Wildlife Refuge, along with the famous candelabra-shaped Octopus Tree, an ancient Sitka Spruce ceremonial tree revered by native Americans. Sitka Spruce is also Alaska’s state tree.

There are several ways to recognize a Sitka Spruce. The needles each have an acute spine at the tip making them prickly to the touch. The cones hang down, are not woody like those of a pine but paper thin, and do not have snake-tongue bracts of a Douglas Fir. The bark is course and scaly, flaking off dollar-size scales that may litter the ground at the base of the tree.

Sitka Spruce is a major timber tree, with light but strong wood that is used for paper. musical instruments such as pianos, guitars, violins, and harps, sail-boat spars, garage doors, and wood-constructed airplanes. New-growth spruce-leaf tips are used for flavoring in syrups and specialty beers.

Sitka Spruce at Fall Creek

Big Spruce at Cape Meares

Cone

Needles

Needle tips

Bark

Tsuga heterophylla
Western Hemlock
Alaska to Northern California
Family Pinaceae
Native

This shade-tolerant tree favors the cool, moist, cloudy, and rainy climate offered by the coastal Pacific Northwest. It is one of our important timber trees, and because it is fast growing and does well in shade, it can be planted so the trees are close together, producing more wood per acre than other commercial timber trees. It is an easy tree to identify, both close-up and from afar. Younger trees have a tip that droops instead of standing erect. This “droopy leader” is often a humorous subject among first-year dendrology students. The foliage has a lacy look because the needles are short and blunt, and they attach to the twig, not in rows as do other conifers, but all around the twig. The bark is thin and narrowly furrowed. Seed cones are small, less than an inch long, papery, closed when green and open when the seeds are released. The tree can grow large, approaching 200 feet high and 9 feet in diameter.

Uses include construction lumber, railroad ties, pulp, and gym floors.

Western Hemlock at Fall Creek

Foliage

Cones

Droopy leaders

Bark

Thuja plicata
Western Red Cedar
Alaska to Northern California
Family Cupressaceae
Native

The Western Red Cedar and other Oregon cedars are not true cedars but are in the Cypress family. True cedars of the genus Cedrus are in pine family (Pinaceae), and they are not native to North America. So, the cedars of Oregon are considered “false cedars”, which can be confusing. The Western Red Cedar is the only Oregon “cedar” that has seed cones, which are small, only about a half inch long, and point upward and backward on a branch. The needles are scale-like, hugging the twig. The genus, Thuja, comes from Greek meaning “fragrant, durable wood”, and the specific name plicata is from Latin meaning braded or folded and refers to the arrangement of needles. And yes, the wood, which is reddish colored, is fragrant and has an attractive smell. It also is decay resistant. It’s a soft light wood, and with straight grain and few knots, it makes a valuable timber tree to be used for shingles and shakes, decks, siding, indoor paneling, posts, and rails. Native Americans found the tree invaluable for lodges, boats, tools, and many other uses. The thin, stringy bark was woven into mats, clothing, baskets, ropes, and fishing nets.

Western Red Cedar

Foliage

Cones

Split cedar log showing reddish wood

Bark

Ilex aquifolium
Holly, English Holly
Cosmopolitan Cultivar, Native to Eurasia
Family Aquifoliaceae
Non-native

English Holly, a favorite Christmas symbol, is a non-native cultivar that is planted worldwide and has become invasive in the Pacific Northwest. It is a small to medium size tree that can grow to 50 feet tall, and it is spreading vegetatively and by seeds though native Oregon forests since the 1980s with a negative effect on native plants by reducing their growth and reproduction. It is an evergreen with thick, shiny, dark green, wavy-edged leaves that have up to five sharp spines on each side. Its berries, poisonous to animals and humans, turn red in the fall and last well into winter. It is dioecious with male and female plants. The flowers are white with four petals and four sepals. It prefers our moist coastal climate.

Holly Tree

Leaves

Berries

Alnus rubra
Red Alder
Alaska to California
Family Betulaceae
Native

Red Alder occupies western North America from the Alaska panhandle to Santa Barbara county in coastal California and is particularly prominent in the Pacific Northwest. In Oregon, it grows on the western side of the Cascades. It is a deciduous broadleaf tree that favors moist conditions, especially along stream banks. It is also the first tree to pioneer clearcuts or burned areas. It gets its common name from its reddish inner bark. It is a tall alder, reaching over 90 feet, but not long-lived, lasting maybe 100 years. Leaves are ovate with serrated edges that curl under and a pointed end. The bark is usually covered with mosses and lichens. The male flowers are reddish, pendant catkins. The female flowers develop into woody, cone-like strobili.

It is a nitrogen fixing plant that is associated with an actinomycete, a kind of actinobacteria, that is housed in root nodules and converts nitrogen from the air into nitrogenous nutrients that enrich the soil.

It is also a valuable hardwood used in cabinetry, furniture, and paper. Locally, Red Alder is manufactured into brush handles, cutting boards, tabletops, furniture parts, and cabinetry components. A mill in Garibaldi, Oregon specializes in processing Red Alder and other northwest hardwoods.

Red Alder Tree

Leaves and young strobili

Old strobili

Bark

Sambucus racemosa
Red Elderberry, Red Elder
Alaska to California, most of North America
Family Viburmaceae (formerly Adoxaceae, formerly Caprifoliaceae)
Native

Red Elderberry is a common native shrub (or small tree) that can be seen along most of our roadsides, blooming profusely in April and loaded with bright red berry-like drupes in June and July. It likes moist environments, forest openings, and is often a riparian plant. It will tolerate moderate shade. Flowers are small, creamy-white, and arranged in pyramidal clusters (a cyme). Each flower has a five-lobed corolla. Leaves are opposite, compound, with five to seven lanceolate leaflets. Each leaflet has a serratulate edge and a pointed tip. Fruits, which are favored by many animals, are seedy but edible if cooked. The seed may lay dormant for many years before germinating. The leaves contain a cyanogenic glycoside that is toxic to humans. There are several subspecies and varieties, and ours is S. racemosa var. arborescens.

Tree

Flowers

Berries

Acer macrophyllum
Bigleaf Maple
British Columbia to California
Family Aceraceae
Native

The aptly named Bigleaf Maple has large five-lobed leaves, oppositely arranged, each up to 12 inches across, larger than dinner plates. It prefers moist but well-drained alluvial soils and is common in riparian zones but can grow on rocky hillsides. In Oregon, it is found mostly on the west side of the Cascades, in valleys and foothills. It may reach 80 feet tall and up to four feet in diameter, with large, spreading limbs. It is deciduous, the leaves falling in the autumn after turning a gorgeous yellow. Its fruit is a double samara, often growing in dense clusters. Its bark is a gray to reddish brown, usually covered with epiphytes such as mosses and lichens. Its wood, moderately hard but not strong, is prized for making furniture. It may grow “birdseye” burls that are popular for artistic woodcraft.

Tree - fall color

Leaf

Double samara

Leaves and samara

Bark

Acer circinatum
Vine Maple
Alaska to Northern California
Family Sapindaceae (formerly Aceraceae)
Native

Vine Maple is a west coast deciduous shrub or small tree up to 20 feet tall that inhabits the western side of the state from the Cascades to the coast. It is common in our area, most noticeable in the fall when the leaves turn beautiful yellows and reds. Its leaves are palmate with seven pointed toothed lobes, and its double samara, or winged fruits, have a reddish color cast. Flowers are white and grow in clusters. You will find the tree in mixed conifer forest of Douglas fir and hemlock. It prefers moist soils near streams and wet areas, is mostly shade tolerant but can withstand sun, and may grow in patches. Vine maple does have a sugary sap that can be collected in limited quantities and boiled down to make maple sugar.

Leaves and double samara

Frangula purshiana
Cascara, Cascara Buckthorn
British Columbia to California
Family Rhamnaceae
Native

Also called Rhamnus purshiana, cascara, common in our area, can be considered either a large shrub or small tree. It grows as an understory plant in shaded forest. Flowers, growing in clusters, are small, greenish white to greenish yellow, with five petals that are pointed, five sepals, and five stamens. Leaves are alternate, obovate to oblong, strongly pinnately veined, and deciduous. Fruit are berries that ripen to blue-black color in the summer.

Cascara means “bark” in Spanish, and extracts of aged bark, which contain anthraquinones, chemicals that stimulate movement of the large intestine, have been used for centuries by coastal Native Americans and later by immigrants as a powerful laxative. Early settlers called cascara “chitticum”, which comes from Chinook Jargon, a Pacific Northwest pidgin language, and is translated as “shit come.”

This Cascara tree is next to the gravel parking lot at the Whisky Creek Fish Hatchery

Leaves

Flowers

Berries

Bark

Morella californica
California Wax Myrtle
British Columbia to California
Family Myricaceae
Native

Also called Myrica californica, wax myrtle is a shrub or small tree up to 20 feet tall or more with narrow and slightly toothed, shiny leaves about four inches long and clusters of staminate and/or pistilate spikes (catkins). Flowers of the latter develop into spherical, reddish to purplish-black, waxy fruits. It is a relative of the more famous bayberry of the northeastern states, Myrica pennsylvanica, the wax of which is used in bayberry candles, popular at Christmas. Wax Myrtle grows at low, coastal elevations from Washington to Southern California. It blooms from spring to early summer, producing greenish to reddish pistillate and staminate (female and male) catkins at the base of the leaves. The plant is considered medicinal, the bark and roots used by herbalist and in folk medicine for blood circulation, bacterial infections, coughs, and sore throats.

Tree

Leaves

Bark

Flowers

Fruit

Malus fusca
Pacific Crab Apple
Southern Alaska to Northern California
Family Rosaceae
Native

The pacific crab apple, formerly placed in the genus Pyrus, also the genus for pears, has now been moved to the apple genus Malus. It often grows in wetlands and along stream banks but can also thrive in drier areas. It may reach 40 feet high. Most of the trees between Netarts and Oceanside grow fairly high on the bluff above the beach, for example near the top of the stairs leading from the beach to The Capes, but one good example can be found just behind the driftwood line between Happy Camp and Fall Creek. It is common on Netarts Spit. It bears clusters of white, five-petal flowers during May that develop into light brown to red fruit that mature in late summer and early fall. These small apples, about half an inch long, have a very sour, lemony taste, can be eaten raw or cooked, and are favored by house finches, grosbeaks, and robins. When dried, the apples may become slightly sweeter. The leaves are alternate, irregularly serrate, or sometimes doubly serrate with larger serrate teeth bearing smaller teeth. The leaf edges are often incised into three lobes. They are deciduous. The fissured and scaly bark, though used as a medicine by native peoples, contains cyanide-producing compounds and should not be consumed. Chinook Indians called the fruit Pow-itch, and it was collected by Lewis and Clark at Fort Clatsop on January 28, 1806.

Tree

Leaf

Flowers

Fruit

Prunus laurocerasus
Cherry Laurel, English Laurel
Landscape Plant Native to Europe
Family Rosaceae
Non-native

Originally from Eurasia, Cherry Laurel has become a favorite landscaping tree, especially for hedges. It has also become invasive, spreading, growing rapidly from suckers, stems that touch the ground, and seeds, and crowding out native plants. It is a small to medium size tree with large, leathery, shiny dark green leaves and a cherry-like fruit that turns black in the fall. Both leaves and fruits, especially the seeds of the fruits, are poisonous because they contain hydrogen cyanide. It flowers in spring and early summer with creamy-white racemes. The leaves have smooth to slightly serrate edges, heavy veins, and midribs, and glands on their undersides.

Tree

Fruit

Leaves

Salix hookariana
Hooker’s Willow, Dune Willow, Coast Willow
Alaska through Northern California
Family Salicaceae
Native

All along the bottom of the hillside from Oceanside to Netarts, just above beach, and many places along the edge of Netarts Bay and on Netarts Spit, is Hooker’s Willow, a brushy shrub or tree up the 30 feet high that thrives in moist environments near the coast. Its obovate leaves, dark green on top, grayish and hairy underneath, drop during fall and emerge in spring. Male and female catkins appear during March and April, often before the leaves. This willow, like others, is a good soil stabilizer and reduces bank erosion. Pictured here is the plant as a tree and as a shrub, along with its leaves, seed-producing female catkins, and pollen-producing male catkins.

There are other willows in our area such as the Sitka Willow, and these will be added when photographed.

Tree

Shrub

Leaves

Female Catkin

Male Catkin