Re: "Golden Oak of Cyprus"

> 
> Diane:
> 
> Thanks for this interesting bit of info.  Perhaps that is why you don't 
> observe this attractive native in a garden setting more often.  I wonder that 
> no mention is made of mycorrhizal fungi in connection with the cultivation of 
> Arbutus menziesii in the otherwise excellent book "Growing California Native 
> Plants," by Marjorie Schmidt.  

It should be pointed out that the ectomycorhizae associated with arbutus
are NOT species-specific, and it's extremely likely that suitable fungi
are present in any soil that's near the root-zone of an established native
tree [or some non-natives, such as birch or oak]. And the spore-fall is
such that the fungi will certainly find any seedling madrone. IMHO, any
ectomycorhizal product is probably useless, unless you're propagating tree
seedlings in a sterile compost.

Madrone, like most native oaks, is underutilized for four primary
reasons: it's initially slow-growing, doesn't containerize well at
"saleable" size, it often fails to establish in the landscape, and it's
quite subject to disease when irrigated.

Even in the wild, madrone is stressed by excessive wet: following the past
three wet winters in western Oregon, madrones have had serious fungal
disease of the foliage.  As for summer-watering -- this is most likely to
cause loss [as it does for native oaks]
when irrigation comes to established trees, which assuredly have abundant
ectomycorrhizae! 

loren russell, corvallis, oregon
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