October 2025
Pacific Northwest
In the land of evergreen conifers, Pacific Madronas (Arbutus menzeisii) are our one native evergreen broadleaf tree. All trees lose their leaves during the year but the “evergreens” don’t lose them all at once the way deciduous trees do. Madronas lose their two-year old foliage in summer, retaining year-old leaves and putting out bright new foliage. Take a look at how fresh this madrona foliage is right now, at a time when our maple, alder, willow and oak leaves are fading and falling.
Leaves are thick and waxy-surfaced as a way to cut down on water loss
Note how the berries are ripening at this season, just in time for the Varied thrushes and winter Robins who will be arriving soon.
Besides the bright red berries, the other fall feature of madronas is the annual shedding of their bark. It’s a paper-thin cinnamon-colored layer that peels off, revealing the trunk’s new outer layer below. That surface starts greenish and soon turns golden then russet. This shedding helps prevent disease since any attached fungi or parasites are shed too.
Botanical exfoliation
There’s one kind of fungi Madronas do need: ericoid mycorrhiza. Madronas, like many species in the Ericaceae plant family, are able to thrive in poor soils due to their symbiotic fungal partner.
ericaceous plants dominate particular habitats like peat bogs, moorlands, and heathlands. These are characteristic with several factors negatively influencing the dynamics of its plant communities, such as low nutrient accessibility, low pH, high carbon : nitrogen ratio and heavy metal toxicity. It is believed that ericoid mycorrhiza enables ericaceous plants to sustain these environmental stresses
That’s why it’s notoriously difficult to transplant or grow madronas, unless there’s an existing mycorrhizal network at the site.
More fall colors:
Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) turns various colors, from red to yellow.
Some kind of polypore fungus, with Douglas fir needles recently blown down in our windy weather
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A question for gardeners: anyone know what this is? A friend gave me some winter squash seeds from someone she knew in Guatemala, hand-labeled butternut, but this is what grew. Definitely not butternut, at least not like any I’ve seen.
This squash is about a foot long
Partly sunny and continued dry in the Pacific Northwest islands. Temps in 60s, in 40s at night. The windy weather we’ve been having has finally quieted down.
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What’s up in nature in your neighborhood on this fall day?
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THE DAILY BUCKET IS A NATURE REFUGE. WE AMICABLY DISCUSS ANIMALS, WEATHER, CLIMATE, SOIL, PLANTS, WATERS AND NOTE LIFE’S PATTERNS.
WE INVITE YOU TO NOTE WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU IN YOUR OWN PART OF THE WORLD, AND TO SHARE YOUR OBSERVATIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND HISTORY OF THE DAILY BUCKET FEATURE, CHECK OUT THIS DIARY: DAILY BUCKET PHENOLOGY: 11 YEARS OF RECORDING EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD
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