Category Archives: Flora

Beautiful and Fragrant Rhododendron occidentale

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The Pacific Coast area has only one native azalea which is famous not only for its fragrance and beauty, but also as being very difficult to grow.

Unlike our native rhododendron R. macrophyllum, R. occidentale is considered to be an azalea or azaleadendron. Both plants have a tendency to grow in thickets and become fairly tall. Unlike R. macrophyllum, R. occidentale is a deciduous azaleadendron and drops all of its leaves in the winter.

Colorful and fragrant blooms

The fantastic, often fragrant blooms, appear when the leaves emerge. Imagine 6-12 five multicolored florets clustered into trusses measuring up to 5-6 inches wide covering a large shrub.

These florets typically flaunt white, orange, yellow, pink or red, with flares, stripes, blotches, and frilly lobes that are deliciously fragrant.

Habitat

The flower and plant diversity reach a peak in the southern Oregon/northern California region spawning creating several unusual, recognized natural selections. This plant is also unusual because it will grow in serpentine soils (which are more base in pH). They are often used for southern coast restoration projects.

R. occidentale was used to develop fragrance and diversity in many other deciduous hybrid azaleas (such as Exbury hybrids). To see or smell a local example on campus check the southwest corner of Nash; southeast of Gilkey Hall at intersection of sidewalks in late April and May.

Where to look

Look for plants growing on the hillsides along Highway 101 from Newport to southern California. Fragrance will also give their locations away.

While it easily grows here, it will not on the East Coast. No one quite understands why it will not grow well there, especially since the bulk of native azealeas grow there.

Natural Cluster

It is possible to view a major natural cluster at the Azalea State Reserve just south of the Oregon-California border (see https://www.stateparks.com/azalea_state_reserve_in_california.html) near to Highway 101. There are several campgrounds, parks, reserves, etc. nearby.

Brookings, just north of this area in Oregon, features an annual Azalea festival. Check out occidentale at the Brookings City Park May 22-25, 2020. The festival includes many activities such as art shows, plant sales, seafood feeds, cruise ins, breweries, much and more! (see http://azaleafestivalbrookings.com/ )

For more information see OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Horticulture, Landscaping Plants at https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/rhododendron-occidentale and the Azalea Society of America at https://www.azaleas.org/view-azalea/?id=9318. Photo of R. occidentale by Don Hyatt, http://donaldhyatt.com/ used with permission.

The Coos County Timber Industry

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Coos County Logging Museum in Myrtle Point.

Coos County was at one time one of the most productive timber-growing environments in the world. The area offered vast stands of old growth Douglas fir, cedar, spruce, and hemlock.

In the early 1850s, Euro-Americans visiting the Coos Bay area were impressed by the abundant forests and decided to capitalize on the growing demand for lumber products in California.

These newcomers noted that the region contained the best timber in Oregon and compared the Coos Bay harbor as a close second only to San Francisco as a commercial depot. Its relative isolation from the rest of the state’s areas with the most commerce and largest populations allowed for Coos Bay to be tied to San Francisco both culturally and financially.

Investment in mining and lumber operations was so prominent at this time that capitalists from San Francisco and elsewhere controlled the entire southern Oregon coast economy by 1875. Investors from the Great Lakes region also sought to profit from the area’s natural bounty in the early 1900s.

As logging technology continued to revolutionize, the Southern Pacific Railroad announced its plan to construct a connection to Coos Bay and ownership of lumber mills and thousands of acres of timberland began to concentrate into a few large holdings, such as the Smith, Weyerhaeuser, and Menasha timberlands.

This is only a brief snapshot into the complex, multi-faceted history of Coos Bay’s timber industry and an extremely abridged account of the many diverse stakeholders involved. To learn more, visit the Coos County Logging Museum located in Myrtle Point. This museum is listed with the National Register of Historic Places and serves as a celebration logging industry’s rich history.

Here, you will find a plethora of photographs, records, and authentic logging tools that have been preserved over the years. The museum also displays a collection of nine large hand-carved myrtlewood panels by the renowned woodcarver Alexander Benjamin Warnock.

These beautiful pieces capture the ‘glory days of the timber industry’ and are a symbolic representation of the era that so intricately shaped Coos Bay and the surrounding areas.