Madronas No. 485

Inspired by Deadman’s Island in south puget sound and all the old madrona trees that call it home.

Madrona is the name folks from Washington state give this tree, while those in California and Oregon call it madrone or Pacific madrone. British Columbians simply use the Latin genus name, Arbutus. Madrona trees are native to the pacific coast and are adorned for their leathery evergreen leaves, red bark peeling from tan trunks, whitish flowers and bright clusters of reddish-orange berries. At my childhood home we had a HUGE madrona tree in the front yard that somewhat blocked our water view, but it was such a big beauty no one really cared much. I spent many hours as a child climbing smaller sibling trees on our property and carefully peeling away the red bark. The first time I was gifted a pocket knife I promptly carved an H in a trunk of a madrona. Later in life I learned that they are considered a scared tree and I felt remorse and guilt about that H.

In the legend of the great flood, the Salish First Nation describe how the madrona tree provided an anchor for their canoes to hold steady and not drift away. And that’s why, to this day, they don’t use the madrone tree as firewood. It is their way of thanking and honoring the memory of the refuge and survival for the people it provided long ago. The Salish Nation also honors the madrona as their “Tree of Knowledge’ because it knows how to find the sun. It twists and turns and somehow knows to drop one branch when there is not enough sunlight and it will grow a new branch where the sun can reach it. Which explains why there are so many incredible features on the trunks of madrona trees.