Northern California - International Dendrology Society (IDS)

Northern California 

GLYN CHURCH 

The prospect of the biggest, the oldest and the tallest trees in the world was too 

tempting to resist. So here we all were, a group of enthusiastic IDS members 

raring to go. We met in San Francisco and on our first day taken to the Strybing 

Arboretum with Ted Kipping as our guide. Ted pointed out that many of the 

bigger trees in the Arboretum were planted 100 to 130 years ago and are now 

in decline. In this soft maritime climate, trees have a reduced lifespan, so there 

is a new plan to plant suitable trees for the future. 

Aided by some of the Strybing staff we had a very pleasant wander around 

the Arboretum admiring such things as Metrosideros excelsa, Pinus oaxacana and 

the Mexican hand flower Chiranthodendron platanoides. I’m sure I spotted some 

tree lovers admiring the very rare Passiflora parritae and its hybrid offspring 

Passiflora x ‘Mission Dolores’. I have to admit, the stunning red and orange 

flowers were hard to resist. 

I should mention at this early stage that John Palmer had provided us all 

with a fantastic tour booklet. John’s tour programmes should be the model for 

all IDS tours as they list all the local guides, the IDS participants and a detailed 

daily route with the tree highlights. The daily outline shows the places to visit, 

our hosts and also the IDS members presenting a tree and giving the thank you 

speech. John went to a great deal of effort to organise all of this. 

The next part of our tour was very un-treelike, visiting an art exhibition 

at the De Young Museum titled ”Birth of Impressionism” with Monets, 

Manets and Renoirs. But we were soon back into plants with a short walk to 

the California Academy of Sciences to see their “green roof” with Dr Frank 

Almeda. This new building described as half museum and half zoo, receives 

2.3 million visitors a year. I think we were all very impressed by the onehectare 

roof garden with a series of native plants growing on coconut fibre to 

create a genuine living roof. 

Next up was the famous Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. This 

was a treat for lovers of Japanese style gardens. There were many clever and 

stylish placements of plants and ornaments, but the one that seemed to enthuse 

the IDS was the use of a log placed in the water to prop up a bent stem of a 

small tree, making it appear as if the tree were going straight out of the water. 

On our way back to the hotel we enjoyed the vibrancy and architecture of 

San Francisco but soon found ourselves admiring the huge range of species 

used as street trees. One could run a whole dendrology tour round the city 

streets of San Francisco; Agonis, Lyonothamnus, Metrosideros, Myoporum, and 

Pittosporum, to name a few. 

The evening had two treats in store; we were hosted to a dinner at the 

famous Explorers Club followed by a fascinating talk from one of our tour 

members Professor Marcel Robischon about the history of redwoods. 

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photograph © Philippe de Spoelberch 

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 

Above, a stand of Calocedrus decurrens at Ahwahnee, in Yosemite National Park. 

Opposite, Abies concolor var. lowiana at Crags in Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park. 

Day 2 Lest we leave someone behind, it was prudent to count the troops, 

and Arabella bravely took on the role for the duration and was dubbed the 

“Countess”. Leaving the city and heading north across the Golden Gate 

Bridge towards the Sonoma Valley, we were like a bunch of excited school kids 

on a days outing. Our first stop was Casa Bowes, an iconic Californian house 

with bright orange walls contrasting with the never-ending blue sky. 

The house has a genuine indoor outdoor feel, with beautiful modern art 

on the inside and a stylish garden designed by Roger Warner on the outside, 

including an avenue of ancient Olea europaea specially moved onto the 

site. Several of the exterior walls were decorated with flowering climbers such 

as bright purple Bougainvillea and the scented Trachelospermum jasminoides. We 

were all impressed by the borders of drought resistant herbaceous plants, so 

fitting but also essential in this climate. 

We made a short visit to the Quarryhill Botanical Garden for a picnic 

lunch and a presentation planting of an Acer pentaphyllum. The Director, Bill 

McNamara has travelled to China to collect seed of this very rare maple and 

planted a grove of them to help preserve the species from extinction and to 

create a new seed source. Up until recently all of the plants of Acer pentaphyllum 

in cultivation came from one plant in the Strybing Arboretum collected by 

Joseph Rock in China in 1929. Thankfully it grows easily from cuttings and this 

has allowed the Rock version to spread around the globe. 

In the afternoon we were given a private tour of the Benziger Winery 

by the owner Mike Benziger. This is no ordinary winery but a genuine 

INTERNATIONAL DENDROLOGY SOCIETY

iodynamic organic property. Mike 

explained how the property is a 

closed system of agriculture, with 

no inputs from outside. Therefore 

there are no chemicals or fertilisers 

from outside sources and everything 

has to be balanced and maintained 

from within. The fertilisers come 

from their own farm animals, and 

pests are controlled by the use of 

predators. They purposely grow 

the right host plants to attract the 

predators they need. With their 

own irrigation lakes they are self 

sufficient, but try to keep irrigation 

to a minimum to make the vines 

search deep for water. Mike told us 

there were 42,000 vines on 37 acres, 

but shocked us when he said they 

do all their picking at night and 

that each vine was touched 21 times 

during the growing season, going 

on to explain this was only possible 

because his workforce were all family 

members. Mike and his wife Mary 

left New York on graduation and 

followed the hippie trail to California 

and founded this winery. It proved 

so successful that soon his parents 

and siblings were all involved, and 

many of their children too. Mike’s 

talk and explanation of biodynamics 

was truly inspirational. A little wine 

tasting further improved our view of 

his vision. 

Pre dinner we were treated to 

cocktails at the lovely garden of Rick 

and Dana Dirickson. By this stage we 

were all ready to move to California on 

a permanent basis with such beautiful 

gardens and a climate like this. 

Day 3 This morning we returned to 


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Quarryhill Botanical Garden with Bill McNamara. This magical collection 

was started and funded by the late Jane Davenport Jensen back in 1987. The 

IDS members were like kids in a toy shop dashing from plant to plant, or 

rather label to label as so many of their plants are unfamiliar. Things to take 

our fancy included a lovely climbing Millettia dielsiana, a rare wisteria relative 

with pendulous pinky purple flowers. Fokienia hodginsii, the very rare conifer 

from Fujian Province in China and named after the old name for the province 

Fokien by a Captain Hodgins back in 1908. The list was endless, choose 

a genus like Hovenia, and instead of the usual H. dulcis or maybe the rare 

H. acerba, they had a fine plant of H. tomentella, which had us all baffled. It was 

very handsome with big glossy leaves and huge flowers. 

Quarryhill boasts a fantastic collection of Magnoliaceae including Magnolia 

aromatica, M. biondii, M. chevalieri, M. foveolata, M. guangxiensis, M. lacei and 

M. yunnanensis sometimes called M. dianica or M. laevifolia. 

Time was simply too short to enjoy all of the delights on offer at this 

wonderful garden. But it’s more than just a garden, it is a place to protect and 

conserve endangered species. 

Next stop was the Crombie Arboretum, the creation of David and Margaret 

Crombie. They are creating an arboretum of conifer species from around the 

world within an existing area of Douglas fir and coastal redwoods. We had 

lunch under the trees in a pavilion that had as a prototype Richard Storey’s 

Cricket Pavilion in Yorkshire (see pp. 21 - 22). After lunch we took a short walk 

to admire the efforts of the Crombies. 

During the afternoon we drove over the coastal range towards the Pacific 

Ocean. I should mention the roadside trees we saw such as Aesculus californica, 

growing as a shrub or small tree, Arbutus menziesii, and Quercus agrifolia. Late 

afternoon we stopped at the Van Damme State Park to look at the Pygmy 

Forest with Dr Nancy Morin. This is a strange area with extremely acid soil 

and an iron pan preventing tree roots from penetrating too deeply and so all 

of the plants are dwarfed. Much of the land is waterlogged for six months of 

the year and the climate is frequently foggy so it’s hard to imagine a much 

tougher situation for woody plants. We enjoyed studying and photographing 

Cupressus goveniana subsp. pygmaea, Pinus contorta subsp. bolanderi, Lithocarpus 

densiflorus, Ledum glandulosum now Rhododendron columbianum, as well as 

R. macrophyllum, Vaccinium ovatum and Chrysolepis chrysophylla var. minor. 

Day 4 A beautiful morning in Mendocino strolling though the local Botanical 

Garden led by Dr Nancy Morin. The garden is famous for it’s collections of the 

tender and very fragrant Maddenii rhododendrons, as well as camellias and 

native Californian plants. Things such as Romneya and Escholzia californica are 

impossible to resist, even for the most dedicated tree fanatics. 

The next event was definitely non arboreal, a Fourth of July Parade along 

the seafront of Mendocino. What a hoot. As foreigners our biggest surprise 


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was all the campaigning and politicising. Vote for me as sheriff, senator or for 

hospital board. Then there were the campaigners “stop the war” or “support 

our boys” or the more eccentric “dogs are mans best friend” followed by 

the opposition placard, “neuter all dogs”. The only truly non-political float 

was a shoal of young ladies dressed as mermaids wearing swathes of smelly 

kelp. They were so popular they went round twice. Anyway it was an event 

not to be missed, our taste of USA culture. 

From here we ventured north into redwood territory staying the night 

at Eureka. 

Day 5 A visit to a lovely garden owned by IDS member Dr Paul Anderson. His 

collection of rhododendrons was superb and all in such good health. The 

placement of the plants and his eye for detail was obvious and a delight to see. 

Then Dr Steve Sillett took us around the Humboldt State University 

campus admiring his conifer collection including Fitzroya, Agathis and 

Amentotaxus. The highlight for me was four healthy plants of Welwitschia 

mirabilis, the weird conifer relative from the Namib Desert in South Africa 

which only ever has two leaves. This plant is so rare in cultivation because 

it’s a real challenge to grow, yet they had both sexes in flower. Some botanic 

gardens grow them in drainpipes so the taproot can keep going down. 

Steve then showed us the gear he uses to climb trees and bore trees to 

accurately age them. The work Steve and his wife Marie Antoine are doing 

on growth of old forests will change our ideas about trees forever. Standing 

at ground level, foresters (and IDS members) see an old tree trunk making 

tiny increases in girth and so we imagine the tree is senescent and past its 

prime. The truth is the exact opposite. Apparently these old trees are putting 

on more volume of wood per year than ever before. Each new year is their 

biggest volume of timber or more accurately its biomass but it’s mostly at the 

top and put into branches rather than trunk. This knowledge will have huge 

repercussions for carbon sequestration as currently politicians believe old 

forest is worthless as it has already done its growing. 

Lunch was unforgettable. Marie Antoine met us at the ocean with a 

delicious spread. It was simply perfect, good food and good company, 

overlooking an azure blue ocean and islands dotted with pine trees. 

Our visit to a nearby privately owned redwood forest was interesting. An 

IDS member, the late Fred van Eck bought this forest with the aim of preserving 

and logging it. Sounds a contradiction, but the money from selective logging 

goes towards preservation of, and additions to the existing forest. Charles 

Notcutt planted a redwood with the hope it would be allowed to stay for at 

least a thousand years. 

Even though it was late in the day we still had two more appointments. A 

visit to the “Singing Tree” nursery, where owner Don Wallace showed us his 

novel selling techniques. He had designed a very pleasant garden with all the 

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photograph © Glyn Church 



Left, the bark of Pinus lambertiana and right, Pinus jeffreyi on the east slope of Mount Rose, Nevada. 

plants he sold on display. Some of the beds he had left vacant and in these he 

heels in his saleable plants which makes them appear as if they are part of the 

garden. The nurserymen among our group were all very impressed. 

Our evening destination was Steve and Marie’s fabulous new home in 

Arcata overlooking the city and the ocean: the best view in town. Everyone 

was in relaxed mode and our friend Bob van Pelt joined us for the evening. Bob 

knew at least half the members on tour from previous tours and gatherings. 

We were treated to lavish fare from Marie, local beer and wine. The evening 

finished with a Maori song from Gail Church as an acknowledgement to 

celebrate their new home. She successfully stunned everyone present. 

Day 6 Day six, the best day yet. Some real trees now. Steve and Marie led 

us through the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. These coastal redwoods 

Sequoia sempervirens are truly awe inspiring. Have you ever heard a group of 

silent IDS members? Well it was as if they were walking into a library or (as 

some suggested) a sacred place. Only trouble was, you get what Gail and I 

call “Firenze neck”. When you visit Florence (Firenze) in Italy and spend all 

day looking up at ceiling frescoes your neck begins to ache and ache. Well 

these redwoods are so tall you feel like your neck won’t stretch back far 

enough. There were a few Tsuga heterophylla and Abies but you hardly notice 

them as the redwoods truly dominate the scene. Philippe discovered a shrub 

we all thought was an Enkianthus, but they don’t exist in America; turned 

out to be Menziesia ferruginea named after Archibald Menzies, the surgeon on 

Vancouver’s voyage. 


photographs © Philippe de Spoelberch 

Two pine species in Mount Lassen Volcanic Park: left, the crocodile-like bark of Pinus monticola and 

right, is Pinus ponderosa. 

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Steve explained most of the redwood trees are less than 1,000 years old 

while some are 2,000 years old. For most of us dealing in 1, 2 and 300 year old 

trees, that’s impressive. It seems the redwoods prefer to reproduce asexually 

and only produce a good crop of cones every 25 years or so. These trees have 

adapted to fire and every big tree has seen many fires. If the tree should 

appear to die from fire or the tree is chopped down it simply sends up a bunch 

of suckers to produce one or sometimes several trunks. The early pioneers 

hated them because they’d no sooner cut them down when they sprang back 

to life. It’s possible some of the roots of the trees are thousands and thousands 

of years old. Of course the new trunks grow much faster than a seedling 

because they have this enormous root system. 

Another surprise from Steve was the fact the trees are growing faster, putting 

on 5 to 25cm of new growth per year at the tops. Increased temperatures from 

global warming makes them more efficient and more drought tolerant because 

the stomata can be half open and still get enough CO 2 to grow. Because the 

stomata are half closed the tree is conserving water. Another surprise, these 

trees are close to the maximum height it’s possible to attain. Water from the 

roots flows up the xylem tubes and as each droplet of water evaporates at 

the top of the stem, another droplet replaces it. This is negative energy. If the 

water flow stops, the xylem tube becomes useless, and if enough tubes fail, 

the top of the tree dies, so there’s a limit to how high the tree can grow. By 

comparison the Sierra redwoods Sequoiadendron giganteum are the biggest trees 

in terms of volume but not the tallest; these trees have the potential to grow 

much higher but the tops get broken off in storms or are hit by lightning. 

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We were led to a special grove of coast redwoods, the Carl Alwin Schenck 

Grove where 21 mighty redwoods are named in honour of American forestry 

pioneer leaders. Dr Schenck was from Germany and started the first forestry 

college in the United States in 1898 in North Carolina. This Grove was 

dedicated on 4 July, 1951 and here we were for a re-dedication 59 years later. 

After lunch we were shown the redwood which was featured in the 

October 2009 National Geographic magazine. The single-trunked tree has 

among the most complex crowns known. The tree has more than 200 trunks 

within its reiterated crown, which holds nearly 1.5 tonnes of foliage. Overall 

the tree has just over 1100 m 3 of wood and bark, making it among the largest of 

all Sequoia – in fact only a dozen Sequoiadendron are larger. 

Steve and Marie, and Bob van Pelt, and other members of the team have 

discovered several redwood trees bigger than any previously known. They 

have very wisely decided to keep the location secret because the public would 

visit them in hordes and damage the tree roots with foot compaction. 

Here are three more amazing redwood facts from Steve. The area 

of redwoods was never glaciated, as it is known they cannot cope with 

glaciers. The biomass of a coastal Sequoia forest is the highest in the world, with 

old forests of Pseudotsuga/Tsuga a distant second. There are over 200 species of 

liverworts and lichens growing way up in the tops of these redwoods. Steve 

and Marie are not just tree experts but also incredibly knowledgeable about 

bryophytes. One of the great things about an IDS tour is you get the best 

guides imaginable. We all felt very privileged to have been shown these 

forests by these amazing tree people. 

After farewells to Steve and Marie, we drove to our hotel by the sea in 

Crescent City, just on the Oregon border. We were warned this whole region 

has almost constant fogs, and therefore sunny days are a real rarity. However 

the IDS brought three sunny days, their equivalent of a heatwave. 

Day 7 Listed as a quasi day off – does such a thing exist on an IDS 

tour? Because our bus driver needed a day off we hired a group of cars and 

drove to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park to see some amazing oldgrowth 

redwood forest. Smith was an early pioneer and trail blazer for the 

exodus to California back in the 1840s. Everyone was truly flabbergasted by 

the redwoods here and the superlatives flowed. Steve Sillett had told us these 

trees would be the best we would see – how right he was. 

We had another real treat on our way home to the hotel after dinner; John 

Palmer took us to the very dreary looking place and suggested we follow the 

path. Imagine our delight on finding a bog full of Darlingtonia californica at the 

end of a dusty track. These amazing insectivorous plants look like Appalachian 

sarracenias with a bulbous helmet and a pair of walrus whiskers. They were 

certainly living in the right area because the air was alive with mosquitos. For 

some, these darlingtonias were one of the highlights of the trip. 


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Day 8 We were heading inland today, driving through the Siskiyou Mountains 

up into Oregon and down the east side of the Sierra Nevada guided by Dr John 

and Mary Stuart, who were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. 

First stop the Serpentine Barrens near Waldo, Oregon where we saw 

stunted Pinus jeffreyi and various chaparral shrubs including Arctostaphylos 

viscida. 

On over the mountains it was a surprise to see we still had Arbutus menziesii 

for company, in fact the trees were even bigger than those on the coastal 

roads. This was one of the highlight trees of the trip with their beautiful 

orange tan peeling trunks. Other roadside plants included, Quercus garryana, 

and Q. chrysolepis looking vaguely like an olive or a holm oak. Chrysolepis 

chrysophylla as well as Ceanothus integerrimus and C. cuneatus were almost 

constant companions and a surprise to me was to hear that ceanothus could 

fix atmospheric nitrogen in the same way as legumes. 

At the crest of the Siskiyou Mountains, heading back into California we 

saw Abies magnifica var. shastensis, A. concolor var. lowiana, Tsuga mertensiana, 

Pseudotsuga menziesii, Quercus sadleriana and Acer glabrum var. torreyi. 

There were further treats in store at the Klamath National Forest where 

we swooned over Picea breweriana with its beautiful weeping foliage. This is 

one of those rare trees that every serious gardener wants to grow. Apparently 

they are not prolific or common and live in fire safe sites, areas where the 

risk of fire is slim. Across the road, Philippe discovered a beautiful prostrate 

Amelanchier possibly A. alnifolia in flower, and two quite different bushes of 

Ribes sanguineum, one rich red and the other had pink flowers. 

We stayed the night at near Mount Shasta, 4322m (14,179ft), enjoying the 

view of the mountain and the thunderstorms from our hotel. 

Day 9 John said the highlight today would be a drive through Mt Lassen 

Volcanic National Park, in the Southern Cascade Mountains. 

The first stop was an arid region with Juniperus occidentalis subsp. 

occidentalis, Cercis occidentalis, and Pinus sabineana. As we drove on there were 

two dominant oaks, the black trunk oak Quercus kelloggii and the white trunk 

oak Q. garryana. It always helps when plants are colour coded. By the way, 

it doesn’t rain for six months in certain parts of California, so trees have to 

survive the summer on winter rains and John Stuart explained this is why the 

tree canopy is not complete and there are light gaps between the trees, even in 

the pine forests. 

John and Mary took us too some wonderful old growth forests with Pinus 

lambertiana, P. ponderosa, P. monticola, and P. albicaulis (white bark pine) seen 

along the way. Perhaps this is a good time to share Bob van Pelt’s description 

of the pine line in the Sierra Nevada from the Pacific coast, a gentle slope up 

and then the down the steep descent into the dry interior. 

Bob’s list of pines from the coast is P. sabineana, the beautiful ghost pine 

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photograph © Gail Church 


It took 12 IDS members to measure the circumference of this impressive Sequoia sempervirens. 

with grey white needles in the foothills, P. ponderosa with the fabulous pinky 

yellow bark in the mixed forest. Next comes P. attenuata, P. lambertiana, and 

P. jeffreyi. In the subalpine is P. monticola, and P. contorta followed by 

P. albicaulis. Over the top we find P. balfouriana and P. longaeva, the two 

foxtail pines (more on these later). Then on the descent we find occasional 

P. monophylla and then the same species in reverse order from the west 

side. Exceptions are no P. sabineana on the east but we do find P. flexilis on 

steep slopes south of Tahoe. It is aptly named as the flexible stems shed snow 

and keep the tree safe in winter. 

Thinking of snow, John had warned us the road over Mount Lassen might 

be closed with snowdrifts and we did enjoy a quick romp in the snow to see 

Abies magnifica var. shastensis, and throw snowballs. Further down we saw 

Abies concolor var. lowiana and Tsuga mertensiana. Another wonderful day. 

Day 10 Off in search of the very rare Washoe pine Pinus washoensis. This tree 

has a restricted range in western Nevada and north-eastern California and 

thanks to some GPS coordinates from Bob we were able to locate them. It was 

here we said our farewells to John and Mary Stuart, our fantastic guides for 

the last three days. Joseph Rupreht gave a heartfelt thank you speech from us 

all. We drove on towards the town of Bishop, only stopping to enjoy a genuine 

Wild West ghost town called Bodie. 

Day 11 Our guide today was John Louth, Forest Manager at Inyo National 

Forest who took us up into the White Mountains to see bristlecone pines. First 

we stopped at Cedar Flat 3,300m (10,000ft) to see some gnarly old Juniperus 

osteosperma and Pinus monophylla with handsome blue grey needles; a good 

plant for beginners. 

Next stop was the Sierra Vista Point to enjoy the panoramic view of the 



Sequoia sempervirens in the Jedediah Smith State Park. 

YEARBOOK 2010 

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Sierra-Nevada. Some of us were more interested in the alpines and perennials, 

and our two specialists in this field were Primrose and Philippe. I know some 

IDS members do not approve of flowers, and Paolo Perjone jokingly refers to 

it as “carpetology”. One of the plants we found here was Ephedra viridis, with 

clusters of yellow flowers. Ephedra are truly weird plants with rush or reed 

like foliage and are more closely related to conifers and Gnetum rather than 

any flowering plant. 

But we soon forgot about flowers when John led us further up into 

the mountains to see the bristlecone pines Pinus longaeva. The Schulman 

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Bristlecone Pine Grove at 2,800m (9,200ft) is a pretty barren place except it’s 

home to the most amazing trees on the planet. They are also the oldest with 

the record holder being 4,700 years. Apparently someone has discovered 

some even older but who is going to quibble over a few centuries. 

John Louth (did anyone notice his middle name is Trees ?) told us “Dead 

bristlecones don’t decay, they erode” and that certainly seemed to be the 

case. It is a good job we all have digital cameras, because in the old days, 

Kodak would have made a fortune out of us as we merrily clicked away at the 

astonishing gnarled shapes of the bristlecones. 

We were told that the bristlecone pine has changed the course of history 

as the annual rings of these ancients are more accurate than carbon dating. It 

now appears that Stonehenge is the oldest civilisation on Earth as proved by 

new investigations related to ageing of the bristlecones. 

The bristlecones almost have the area to themselves but we did also see 

some tough little shrubs with pale lemon flowers called Purshia tridentata. 

We travelled on south to Onion Valley, high up in the Sierra Nevada 

to see another foxtail pine Pinus balfouriana. The three foxtail pines are 

Pinus balfouriana, Pinus longaeva and Pinus aristata in Colorado and New 

Mexico. John Palmer says the reason for the name foxtail is their ability to 

hold onto their needles for decades creating a swathe of needles like a foxes 

tail. This technique of retaining leaves makes them more efficient users of 

sunlight. When you see them in the wild, you understand they need all the 

help they can get as they live in such inhospitable places with rocks for soil and 

a very short growing season. 

We also found Pinus flexilis, and Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana, plus a 

host of fabulous alpine flowers including Veratrum and Castilleja. On the track 

we met two young trekkers. I asked them where they were headed and the 

reply was “Canada”. Student humour I thought. We gave them a lift into 

town and it turns out they are walking from Mexico to Canada along the 

Pacific Crest Trail. 

Day 12 We were heading back north today past Mammoth Lakes towards Lee 

Vining and then west into the Yosemite National Park. A quick stop at Tioga 

Lake to admire the alpine flowers, and then up over the Tioga Pass 3,031m 

(9,943ft). Our guide today was the irrepressible Dr Bob van Pelt, a fount of 

knowledge on all things dendrological. The pines at this high altitude were 

predominantly Pinus albicaulis, and Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana which 

is easily recognised by the “cornflake” bark. Pinus contorta is known as the 

lodgepole pine for the simple reason that many of the tree trunks are small 

enough to use for log cabins. 

We had lunch in a perfect setting beside Tenaya Lake before heading 

on to Olmstead Point to see natural bonsai trees growing on a solid granite 

dome. John Palmer had described this stop as “Awesome!” No words can do 


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it justice; we’d already seen the tallest and then the oldest trees in the world, 

and here we were looking at a group of trees that could rival both. I doubt if 

anyone of our group was even aware of these trees before the tour, and yet they 

were simply majestic. The Juniperus occidentalis var. australis in particular were 

phenomenal for their ability to grow in slim cracks in solid rock. John Palmer 

shouted out, “don’t be long, be back at 2pm.”, but he’d lost us. Twenty IDS 

members were scrambling up over the granite incline, and there was simply 

no way of dragging them back. 

Juniperus occidentalis var. australis was the dominant tree, though it’s hard 

to say that anything was dominant other than rock. The trees are very widely 

spaced because of the lack of resources. A few pines managed to get the 

grip, Pinus jeffreyi, P. contorta, P. monticola, and in places there were mats of 

Quercus vaccinifolia looking like clipped Japanese azaleas in a cherished bonsai 

garden. The only other prominent plants were some beautiful pink flower 

Penstemon newberryi and a very stunted but attractive Sambucus mexicana 

in flower. 

John finally dragged us away to see the world champion Jeffrey pine Pinus 

jeffreyi 56.7m and a California red fir Abies magnifica. We drove on past some 

magnificent tall Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines, so tall they looked as if they were 

a third to a half taller than they ought to be. On any other IDS tour we would 

have stopped to pay homage to every one, but this is the land of big trees and 

there was nowhere to stop on the narrow roads. We did glimpse some small 

Torreya californica before finally arriving at our accommodation. 

Day 13 Another so-called free day, which is IDS speak for “climb mountains – 

see trees”. Our two young student companions, Richard and Taylor Malloy 

took the most extreme route and climbed Half Dome, and arduous 19 mile 

round trip (see p. 17). Most of us grey manes were content to take an easier 

route along the mist trail to the Vernal Falls led by Bob van Pelt. As you get 

closer to the falls your clothes become drenched in mist, but the participants 

soon dried out in the warm sun away from the falls. 

This is probably a good point to mention the weather on our tour. California 

has rain during the winter months, followed by six months of drought. We 

had been expecting chilly foggy weather all the way up the west coast, but 

instead had been treated to warm sunny days, much to the amazement of the 

locals. Then as we traversed the mountains and came down the dry east side 

of the Sierra Nevada we were expecting temperatures of 100°F or 40°C, but 

every day was a more pleasant 75°F or 25°C. 

Trees seen on our morning jaunt included the (almost) everpresent 

Pseudotsuga menziesii, Umbellularia californica, Quercus chrysolepis as well as 

some fine Acer macrophyllum. 

Some of our group spent the morning on a more leisurely tram ride through 

the Yosemite Park. I believe some even had a rest, but I won’t mention names. 

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144 



Juniperus occidentalis var. australis growing in the rocky landscape at Olmsted Point in the Yosemite 

National Park. 

The more dedicated members spent the afternoon with Bob van Pelt. Bob 

took us part way back the way we came from the east towards Tuolumne 

Meadows. We stopped in an unprepossessing spot and disembarked from 

the bus. Obviously Bob knew something we didn’t, and so it turned out to 

be. Walking along the stream we encountered Alnus rhombifolia, Corylus 

cornuta subsp. californica, and Cornus nuttallii, which had recently finished 

flowering. There was debate over the number of bracts as these wild trees had 

six, whereas the cultivated trees often have four. Charles Notcutt posed the 

question, “why is eastern USA made up of mixed forest with mostly deciduous 

trees, and western USA dominated by conifers?” Bob says it’s to do with the 

six months of summer drought here in the West. The kind season is winter 

with sufficient rainfall, but that’s when the deciduous trees are dormant. On 

the inland side the dreadful hot summers will cook the deciduous trees unless 

they find a spot near a river. 

Back to our afternoon with Bob, we spent some time looking at new ground 

cover treats such as Asarum caudatum, Pyrola picta, and the lovely pink flowered 

Chimaphila umbellata; before going on to the more serious tree business, 

discovering a Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii 78.9m high, and a Pinus 

ponderosa 77.23m, the tallest known. Bob also showed us a beautiful Calocedrus 

decurrens with a huge side branch. Calocedrus had been an almost constant 

companion on this trip as was the Douglas fir. There was much debate about 

why the calocedrus don’t look like the ones in cultivation. Perhaps the early 

plant hunters chose a column habit version to bring into cultivation. These 

wild trees were a true Christmas tree shape with very handsome redwood like 

bark. The rich green chunky foliage contrasts beautifully with the trunks to 

make a very handsome tree. 


We enjoyed a fine dinner at the 

Ahwahnee Hotel and raised a toast 

and a song for Bob’s birthday. 

Day 14 Niki Stephanie Nicholas, 

Chief of Resources and Sciences, 

Yosemite National Park explained 

during a talk, some of the problems 

facing the team at Yosemite, which 

receives 4 million visitors per year. 

Then we were off to see the giant 

redwoods Sequoiadendron giganteum 

in Mariposa Grove. They are so 

big they make you giggle. Trees 

are not meant to be this big. One 

word – magnificent. Thank you Bob 

for sharing your trees and your phenomenal 

knowledge with us. 

Day 15 After 2,270 glorious miles – 

a day of travel to get us back to San 

Francisco. The country was parched 

and very unappealing. We did 


YEARBOOK 2010 

TOURS 

The oldest bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, are 

some 4,700 years. 

see some trees along the way. Our old friend Aesculus californica turned up 

looking very sad and bedraggled in the heat. One area of bleached yellow 

grass and Quercus agrifolia trees looked for all the world like parts of Spain 

and was probably the highlight. Our thanks to James Harris, our in house oak 

expert on the tour. 

Our farewell dinner in San Francisco was a memorable night. Richard 

Storey suggested we all give our own individual thank you to John Palmer for 

running such a magical tour. There was much mirth and heartfelt thanks to 

John for organising the tour and for creating such a wonderful team of experts 

to show us the dendrological treats of California. A truly memorable tour. 

The IDS tour to Northern California was organised by John Palmer and took place 

from 30 June to 16 July 2010. 

Participants: Peter Laharrague, Marilyn Mulville (Argentina); Brian & Shirleyanne Myers 

(Australia); Philippe de Spoelberch, Daphne Lippitt, Abraham Rammeloo (Belgium); Jean- 

Claude & Mary Buisson, Shaun Haddock (France); Anke Mattern, Marcel Robischon 

(Germany); C. P. C. F. (Kees) Elbers, Norman P. Kenny & Ina Kenny-de Leng, Joseph Rupreht 

(Netherlands); Glyn & Gail Church (New Zealand); Ali Ibrahim (Singapore); James G. S. 

Harris & Primrose Mallet Harris, John Hillier, Arabella Killander, Charles Notcutt, Richard 

& Virginia Storey, Timothy & Jane Whiteley (England); Richard Malloy, Taylor Malloy, John 

Palmer, Peter & Shirley Williams (USA). 

145

Northern California - International Dendrology Society (IDS)

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