Species
+

Arbutus menziesii Pursh

Arbutus, Arbutus Tree, Laurelwood, Oregon Laurel

Climate known 56 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Arbutus menziesii, or Pacific madrone, is a species of broadleaf evergreen tree in the family Ericaceae. It has waxy foliage, a contorted growth habit, and flaky bark.

Text from Wikipedia, “Arbutus menziesii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Arbutus

Arbutus is a genus of 12 accepted species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands and North America, and commonly called madrones, madronas, or strawberry trees. The name Arbutus was taken by taxonomists from Latin, where it referred to the species now designated Arbutus unedo.

Text from Wikipedia, “Arbutus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Pursh
Native to
British Columbia, Oregon, Washington +2
Wild records
1869 in range· 378 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1174mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Dec 198 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1174 mm a year, wettest December at 198 mm, driest July at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Arbutus menziesii var. elliptica DC.; Arbutus menziesii var. oblongifolia DC.; Arbutus procera Douglas; Arbutus procera Douglas ex Lindl.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (842 mm of 1174 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 6.6 °C against a yearly mean of 11.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1174 mm a year, wettest December at 198 mm, driest July at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1174 mm a year at the habitat, 842 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 198 mm, driest July at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 688 mm to 1964 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.6 °C, the absolute minimum -8.6 °C, about 15 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.0 °C in December (across the envelope cells 0.2 °C to 6.4 °C), warmest day 24.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from 3 °C in Dec to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1174 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 821 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 7–46RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 821 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / 6–1410 / 7–1512 / 9–1714 / 11–1918 / 14–2320 / 16–2724 / 18–3124 / 19–3021 / 17–2818 / 13–2311 / 8–178 / 5–13
Night °C3 / 1–63 / 1–75 / 2–76 / 4–89 / 7–1112 / 10–1314 / 12–1514 / 12–1613 / 11–149 / 7–126 / 3–93 / 0–6
Rain mm186 / 115–310148 / 89–242129 / 78–21876 / 45–13856 / 20–9336 / 5–6714 / 1–3317 / 2–3836 / 6–6697 / 38–167181 / 91–292198 / 107–345
DLI9 / 6–1614 / 12–2221 / 19–3130 / 28–4038 / 34–4741 / 37–5246 / 40–5241 / 35–4731 / 26–3919 / 14–2810 / 7–187 / 5–14
RH %64 / 57–6863 / 58–6562 / 58–6460 / 55–6359 / 53–6259 / 50–6257 / 48–6258 / 48–6259 / 49–6361 / 51–6564 / 55–6864 / 57–68

Each figure is the median across the 821 grid cells holding the 1820 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1014:1176 (39.275, -121.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 821 distinct grid cells holding the 1820 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1014:1176 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.50_-121.250, lapse-corrected -288 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 441 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBritish Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker48.491, -123.351 · in the densest population, 1020 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1869 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 378 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 49 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1869 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Arbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesiiArbutus menziesii

Photographs: (c) Skyler K, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) J Straka, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Arbutus menziesii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

National-Scale Biomass Estimators for United States Tree Species
Jennifer C. Jenkins, David C. Chojnacky, Linda S. Heath, Richard A. Birdsey (2003) · Forest Science
The molecular revolution in ectomycorrhizal ecology: peeking into the black‐box
Thomas R. Horton, Thomas D. Bruns (2001) · Molecular Ecology
Leaf specific mass confounds leaf density and thickness
E.T.F. Witkowski, Byron B. Lamont (1991) · Oecologia
Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Distribution of North American Trees
Daniel W. McKenney, John Pedlar, Kevin Lawrence, K Campbell (2007) · BioScience
PRESCRIBED FIRE IN OAK SAVANNA: FIRE FREQUENCY EFFECTS ON STAND STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS
David W. Peterson, Peter B. Reich (2001) · Ecological Applications
Foliar water uptake: a common water acquisition strategy for plants of the redwood forest
Emily Limm, Kevin A. Simonin, Aron G. Bothman, Todd E. Dawson (2009) · Oecologia
The fire frequency‐severity relationship and the legacy of fire suppression in California forests
Zachary L. Steel, Hugh D. Safford, Joshua H. Viers (2015) · Ecosphere
Snag Characteristics and Dynamics in Douglas-Fir Forests, Western Oregon
Steven P. Cline, Alan B. Berg, Howard M. Wight (1980) · Journal of Wildlife Management
Climate, Environment, and Disturbance History Govern Resilience of Western North American Forests
Paul F. Hessburg, Carol Miller, Sean A. Parks, Nicholas A. Povak (2019) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
The evolutionary ecology of myco‐heterotrophy
Martin I. Bidartondo (2005) · New Phytologist
Tree regeneration following wildfires in the western US: a review
Camille S. Stevens‐Rumann, Penelope Morgan (2019) · Fire Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Arbutus 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.