Back in December of 2021, I published a review of Prof. Matt Ritter’s 2016 book “A Californian’s Guide to the Trees Among Us,” a work that admittedly had been in print for some time but having just then recently been brought to my attention I found so impressive and useful that I wanted to make certain my readers were aware of it. Little did I know at the time that Dr. Ritter’s book was scheduled for a new edition.
Down the road from our home is a grove of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees. Native to the area, “Doug Firs” are easily found in most any field guide to trees that encompasses a geographic range in which northwest Oregon is included. However at the edge of this little grove is another tree – deciduous and smaller – that long perplexed me. Nothing in guide after guide to which I turned for guidance seemed to have anything quite like it depicted.