I’d heard cascara is abundant here on the west coast, yet, until the other day, had not positively identified any. That evening, right after supper, I headed into some nearby woods with the purpose of finding cascara.<\/p>\n
The place I went is a swampy forest. I looked around, not finding cascara at first. I did see lots of red alder, to which cascara might seem similar at first. However, the leaves of red alder are coarsely toothed, while those of cascara are finely toothed. Moreover, cascara leaves are oblong or oval, while alder leaves are elliptical. Of course, cascara is, at full size, much smaller: 10m high versus alder’s 25m. I looked around for most of an hour, ruling out nearby trees as red alder rather than cascara.<\/p>\n
I started into the lower, swampier section of the forest, seeing that area to have a greater diversity of trees. The going was messy and difficult, jumping from island to island, the growth very dense.<\/p>\n
Eventually, on a particular island, I looked up to notice leaves that were oblong, and not obviously toothed. I had to reach up and pull the branch down to verify the fine teeth around the margin. The surface of the leaves was rippled from vein to vein, just as the guide suggests.<\/p>\n
The cascara I found had mustardy-brown bark; one of my guides concurs, while the other describes cascara bark as silver-grey.<\/p>\n
I wonder about cascara’s forming pure stands.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Pojar, Jim and Andy MacKinnon. Plants of Coastal British Columbia.<\/u> Vancouver:
BC Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.<\/p>\n
Little, Elbert and Susan Rayfield.
\nAudubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees.<\/u> New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.,
1986.<\/p>\n