Pacific Madrona (Arbutus menziesii)

The Pacific madrona, or sometimes referred to as madrone, strawberry tree, or bearberry, is an evergreen tree species native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California coast. They are found growing out of the most impossible spaces between rocks and stretch out horizontally over the ocean to reach sunlight. They grow in dry, sunny, south facing slopes with well draining rocky soils. They can be easily identified by their bright orange-red berries, white urn shaped clustered flowers, and flakey red bark. The leaves are sage colored, alternate, and oval shaped. Today, their habitat range is slowly declining due to increasing development pressures and fire suppression. They depend on naturally occurring, intermittent fires to germinate their seeds and for opening up the forest canopy. Ecologically the berries are very important for many bird species like American robins, quail, cedar waxwings, and band tailed pigeons but other mammals like mule deer and bears also rely on parts of the tree for food. In an old Straits Salish story, the survivors of the Great Flood (a story told by many coastal northwest tribes) used this tree to anchor their canoes to at the top of Mount Newton to protect themselves from washing away. Even today, the Sannich tribe does not cut this tree because of the service it provided long ago.