Down the road from our home is a grove of Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees. Native to the area, “Doug Firs” are easily found in most any field guide to trees that encompasses a geographic range in which northwest Oregon is included. However at the edge of this little grove is another tree – deciduous and smaller – that long perplexed me. Nothing in guide after guide to which I turned for guidance seemed to have anything quite like it depicted.
