ArbutusMenziesii01

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Pacific Madrone is a handsome evergreen, sometimes shrubby, tree with peeling reddish bark and shiny leathery leaves. Madrones usually get 30-40' tall, with a similar spread, but can get as big as 100' tall on the best sites. The picturesque trunk is often twisted and gnarly, and the bark peels in thin flakes until becoming perfectly smooth. The leaves are oval, 2-6" long, with or without finely serrated margins, glossy dark green above and glaucus-gray, almost white, beneath. The white or pinkish flowers, appearing in early summer, are about 1/3" long, urn-shaped, and borne in loose terminal panicles about 8" long. The berry-like fruits are bright orange-red, 1/2" in diameter, with a grainy surface, fleshy pulp, and a thin-walled stone containing several seeds. They take a full year to mature.

The wood of Pacific Madrone is heavy and dense, but it checks badly under normal drying procedures and has not been widely used in wood products manufacturing. It has been utilized occasionally for flooring and cabinet making; the fine-textured, twisted grain produces a handsome veneer. Pacific Madrone is considered a potentially valuable source of both pulpwood and fuel wood on many sites.

Arbutus berries have been eaten in California, while the Straights Salish people of Vancouver Island sometimes cooked the reddish, papery bark with camas bulbs to color them pink. The Saanich used medicinal preparations from the Arbutus bark and leaves for colds, stomach problems and as a post-childbirth contraceptive. Historically, other West Coast Indian tribes ate Pacific Madrone berries and fashioned eating utensils from the bulbous roots. The astringent leaves have been used medicinally; the berries apparently possess some narcotic properties.

Cabinets are made from the hard, close-grained wood, and the charcoal from it was once used in the manufacture of gunpowder.

Despite its regular shedding of both bark and leaves, Pacific Madrone is a highly ornamental species, prized for its crooked beauty, colorful bark, showy flowers, and brightly colored fruits. Trees are cultivated for landscaping in both the United States and Europe. Other commercial uses of Pacific Madrone include utilization of the bark for tanning leathers, and is a well-known bee plant.