Prete neh AA Wy PI Ulm Owner Viet ify eh ero te 
Se aa a tal et ae ae 
i 
LET’S KNOW SOME TREES 27 
The biack cottonwood, the largest * popple ” in California. is found 
at elevations from 3,000 to 6,000 feet, abundantly in the Sierra, less 
frequently in the coast ranges. The leaves are longer pointed than 
our two other. _species—deep, shining green above, “whitish below— 
and the bark is much darker and heavily ridged. It is largest in 
the rich flats in its lower elevations, sometimes being 125 feet high 
and 6 feet through, and is smaller as the elevation increases. At its 
best this tree furnishes real lumber, tough and pliant, odorless and 
tasteless, hence good for barrel staves, butter firkins, candy baskets, 
and such wares. 
The Fremont cottonwood is the common cottonwood of the lower 
valley stream sides, found in plenty along the Sacramento and San 
Joaquin Rivers and their branches. Its bark is also ridged, but is 
hght brown in color; sometimes, at 3,000 feet it is silvery and when 
bare suggests white birch stems. Even under the best conditions 
the tree seldom grows upright, but leans over. When old and hollow- 
hearted it sometimes fairly hes down along the river bank, though 
still sending up vigorous branches. This growth habit of Fremont 
cottonwoed is of important service in holding the shifting soils of 
the banks of our bottom-iand streams. 
THE MAPLES 
There is but one large maple on the Pacific coast, the bigleaf maple, 
sometimes called the Oregon maple, but fortunately that is well 
distributed, being found from Alaska through British Columbia, 
Washington, Oregon, and California. Here in California it can be- 
seen in the Coast Range vallevs from ore end of the State to the 
other, and im those of the Sierra Nevada from the Oregon line down 
to the Sequoia National Park, with occasional groups or single 
specimens in the cross ranges. While it prefers moist, gravelly soil 
and attains its greatest size and beauty on the bottom lands in 
Oregon, fairly eood specimens are also found on the ridges and hill 
slopes. “The writer remembers noting 20 years ago, on the trail from 
Mill Valley to Tamalpais, that the forest floor for miles was carpeted 
with maple seedlings; not long ago, climbing the trail from the 
Happy Isles to V ernal Falls in Yosemite V alley, he looked down 
on fine, vigorous maple trees. 
Bigleat Maple is not the glory of the fall that the eastern maples 
are, for the leaves are thicker and only an occasional tree turns gol- 
- den yellow. But the spring foliage is fine and green, while the leaves 
attain a breadth of from 7 to 14 inches. The flower clusters. coming 
with the leaves. are yellow and attract the bees almost as much as 
those of the elms. The shape of the leaves is like the ordinary maple, 
or rather more like a grape leaf, not quite so sharply and deeply cut 
as the sugar maple. 
There are two dwarf maples that come down into California from 
Oregon; one mainly in the Sierra, the other chiefly a Coast Range 
species. The Coast Range species, called vine maple because of its 
tendency to sprawl rather than stand upright, is hardly ever 
more than a shrub. It has foliage similar to and as gorgeous as a 
Japanese maple, both in its rosy spring color and in its flaming 
scarlet, yellow, or rose of fall. It has not been reported farther 
south than Mendocino County. 
