Pacific Madrone and Kinnikinnick in the PNW of the US!

[00:00:00]How's it going everybody? We are here in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, west of the Cascade Mountains, and we are taking a look at Pacific Madrone.

[00:00:10]That's the common name. The botanic Latin name is Arbutus menziesii.

[00:00:16]This plant is in the family Ericaceae.

[00:00:19]That's the blueberry family {slash} the heather family. And this tree can get up to about 100 ft tall. That's about 30 m.

[00:00:27]The fruits um are considered drupes, meaning they have a skin on the outside, then a fleshy part inside of that, and seeds inside of the fleshy part.

[00:00:39]These drupes have many seeds. Other drupes have uh one or maybe just two or three seeds.

[00:00:45]And when unripe, these fruits are green, as we see here. They look like little limes. And when ripe, they are uh a light red, kind of an orangey red.

[00:00:56]Uh the surface of these fruits are considered granular. You see all these tiny little bumps on the surface. They feel kind of rough.

[00:01:02]And the shape of these fruits is considered subglobose. Globose means globe-shaped. Subglobose means almost globe-shaped.

[00:01:12]And the fruits can also be tuberculate, meaning elongated in these two directions.

[00:01:20]Uh tuberculate means shaped kind of like a tuber, like a potato.

[00:01:25]The leaves are considered uh entire to finely serrate. In this case, uh these leaves are finely serrate, meaning they're a point pointing forwards towards the tip of the leaf, the apex of the leaf, the part of the leaf farther from the the stem.

[00:01:43]And those points can be kind of rounded as well. An entire means the edge of the leaf, the margin of the leaf, would be totally smooth.

[00:01:52]Uh these leaves can be uh ovate, meaning egg-shaped, wide at the base, narrow at the tip.

[00:02:00]That apex.

[00:02:02]They can be oblong.

[00:02:05]Uh, meaning kind of like an oval, but with more parallel sides. Uh, sides that are parallel or nearly parallel.

[00:02:11]Or they can be elliptic.

[00:02:14]Meaning oval-shaped.

[00:02:16]The sides are more rounded.

[00:02:18]And down here we have another member of the family Ericaceae. This is kinnikinnick, that's the common name.

[00:02:24]And the botanic Latin name is Arctostaphylos uva-ursi.

[00:02:32]And this plant, uh, along with Pacific madrone, they both have, uh, flowers similar to blueberries.

[00:02:39]Beautiful little flowers.

[00:02:41]Um, the shape of the flowers uh, is considered, uh, like a downturned urn. Beautiful little white flowers.

[00:02:50]Awesome ground cover for your home garden here in the Pacific Northwest. Just as Pacific madrone is a great tree for your home garden here in the Pacific Northwest. Shout out to you.