©2009 Ed Book

 

 

The Pacific Madrona, native to the Pacific Northwest coastal lowlands, is an evergreen broad-leafed hardwood tree that is scattered about the forests and shores of our Kitsap Peninsula in Puget Sound.  The leaves are thick, oval shaped, and leather-like and linger for a few seasons.  The habit (structure) of the tree is sinuous with undulations in the main trunk and branches.

The bark produces some of the chlorophyll needed to feed it and in doing so, it changes during the spring-summer seasons.  Starting out green, as it produces chlorophyll, it gradually changes to yellow-green and then to orange and finally orange-red before peeling to reveal a new smooth green layer.  In these photos, you can see the smooth new underlayer and peeling upper layers of the bark.

I made these images while photographing the old Seabeck cemetery about five miles from here.  Seabeck, a timber mill town was one of the first Washington Territory settlements but after the mill burned and the hillsides stripped of the gigantic Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, and Western Red Cedar forests it was left as a ghost town and is still a tiny village. 
 

 

peeling chlorophyll producing bark
 

Peace