EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM FIR (DOUGLAS-FIR)
What's up, Fungal Associates! Welcome to Completely Arbortrary, the podcast about trees and other related topics. In our inaugural episode, we discuss the crown jewel of the Great Pacific Northwest, the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Named after botanist David Douglas, this false fir is a house favorite and a perfect choice for Christmas trees. While we're at it, what is a fungal associate? We start our PR campaign for these fungal friends in this, our first episode of Completely Arbortrary.
Douglas-fir
(Pseudotsuga menziesii)
It feels like the most appropriate way to begin this is with a hearty What’s up Fungal Associates! Welcome to Completely Arbortrary. Our journey through the forests and woodlands of the world starts here, with the Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii).
If you’re new here, welcome! This inaugural episode is like the first layer a tree puts down in its very first year of growth: it’s feeling out the light conditions, the soils conditions, the moisture levels. It’s getting its foundation set, putting down its first new roots and seeing what fungal associates are nearby and to whom it should introduce itself. These are the first few steps in what will be lifelong relationships.
If you’re a seasoned listener already, then welcome to the beginning. Like going backwards through time counting the rings of a crosscut tree, at some point you’ll inevitably end up here. The Phantom Fir is the episode where it all began: our first mention of fungal associates, the introduction of the Golden Cone Scale, the first bemused banter of your wayward hosts, Alex Crowson and Casey Clapp.
In this episode, we set the stage for how Completely Arbortrary will grow, layer by layer, as we begin our journey through the Annals of Treedom. (This was the actual metaphor we used in our very first podcast description!) Being based in Portland, Ore., we couldn’t help ourselves and had to begin with the Douglas-fir, a tree so well-known out west that whole books have been written about it.
In our addition to the body of information about the Douglas-fir, we take the opportunity to introduce the tree and ourselves to the Wood Wide Web. Did you know that the Douglas-fir may have been the tallest tree ever, beating out even the coast redwoods of California and the eucalypts of Australia? Did you know that of the trees in the pine family (Pinaceae), the Douglas-fir is the biggest of them all? Did you know it’s not actually a true fir tree? Did you know that the tree’s namesake, David Douglas, died in a pit trap in Hawai’i?
Though it seems to be full of mystery and wonder, the Douglas-fir is at the same time one of the most common trees in the west. It is said that if you point at a needled tree in a forest west of the Cascades in Oregon and call it a Douglas-fir, you’d be right 8 out of 10 times.
But the objective of Completely Arbortrary is not to just provide a list of interesting facts and opinions followed by a well-informed, though ultimately arbitrary (see what we did there?), review and rating. We are determined to connect you to the trees around you, to plug you in to their world, and to guide you toward the realization that their world and yours are one in the same.
This is a show about trees and other related topics. We aim to take you with us as we explore the relationships trees have with the rest of the complex world around them. Our dive into the iconic Douglas-fir is the first step in our journey; we have many other adventures in front of us.
Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson
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Cover art by Jillian Barthold
Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals
Episode cover photo by Sabrina Eickhoff
Additional Reading:
The Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast by Robert van Pelt
The Life of Trees
Red Creek Tree
Lore of Christmas Tree
David Douglas' resting spot in Hawai'i