- Author: Erich Warkentine
The Manzanar Guayule project is well underway.
Guayule is a type of USA native rubber plant which was grown at Manzanar during the war years. UC Master Gardener volunteers for this project have been assisting in the reconstruction and maintenance of a guayule patch situated in front of the Manzanar Visitors' Center. In addition, they are researching cultivation requirements and developing expertise in the care of guayule.
On September 3 Manzanar Park Superintendent Bernadette Johnson and Arborist Dave Goto invited Master Gardener Guayule Project group members to meet a visiting French guayule expert, Professor Serge Palu. The group from Master Gardeners included Joanne Parsons, Harold MacDonald and Erich Warkentine. Dr. Colleen McMahan also joined us bringing some additional guayule specimens from her USDA lab in Albany, California for planting in the garden. The group discussed some of the details of guayule cultivation and listened to a history of rubber plant cultivation (guayule and other plant types) by the late Mark Finlay, presented by his colleague, Professor Palu.
While interest in guayule has been persistent over the last century, many factors have hampered its development – including lack of patent protection, political factors, and growing area regional instabilities. Thomas Edison even experimented with the cultivation of guayule in Fort Myers during the late 1920's. Major D.D. Eisenhower signed orders to survey guayule in the 1930's. The connection of guayule to Manzanar is the establishment of a rubber research effort during World War II. After the park was established, one of the researchers, Akira Frank Kageyama, donated some plant specimens taken from the internment camp, which Manzanar staff used to establish a guayule demonstration garden in front of the administration building.
This demonstration garden is a reminder that interest in biological sources of rubber has been around a long time, and that scientists who were interned at Manzanar had an interest in contributing to the war effort.
Guayule still has a lot of potential. There are currently more varieties of guayule than ever before — greater than 50 —and there is more interest in producing rubber from non-petrochemical sources. Research is continuing (at USDA), including new ways of bioengineering the plants.
The guayule in the Manzanar patch is your grandfather's rubber plant. Expect to see more commercial cultivation in the coming years.
We hope to see you at the Guayule patch!
- Author: Harold McDonald
Southwest Connections, part 2
Last time we learned about Gambell oak (Quercus gambellii) and a couple of Rhus species, R trilobata and R aromatica. And last year, I wrote articles here about another couple of foundational plants in my xeriscaped yard: sugarbush (Rhus ovata) and coffeeberry (Frangula californica). Today I'd like to highlight another tough-as-nails shrub. All of these are plants are perfectly suited to our dry land of temperature extremes. Though they thrive in lean, fast-draining soils, you're not likely to kill any of these with regular garden watering. Some native shrubs (the gorgeous flannel bush and our native Ceanothus come to mind) are so intolerant of irrigation that a summer watering is like a death sentence! Not so with the bushes I am profiling. They are all carefree in every way.
Anyone who has driven to the trailheads of Bishop Creek has probably noticed Chamaebatiaria millefolium (now that's a mouthful!), because of the attractive, fern-like foliage that gives the plant its unsurprising common name—fernbush. You'll see lots of it just before you get to Bishop Creek Lodge on the south fork of Bishop Creek or just past Aspendell on the north fork. But don't think fernbush has to sleep the winter away under a blanket of snow. I've seen this highly adaptable bush in rocky, inhospitable sites in the White Mountains, and it does great down here in the wilds of West Chalfant.
Even fernbush's scientific name is appealing! Fernbush is monotypic, meaning it is the only species in its genus. The genus name (Chamaebatiaria) comes from the similarity in appearance (though not at all related) to mountain misery (Chamaebatia), the ubiquitous groundcover of the west slope of the Sierra Nevada (the Wawona area in Yosemite National Park is a great place to see this plant). And the species name—millefolium—is the same as for one of my favorite garden flowers, yarrow (Achillea millefolium). And then we could move on to the interesting scientific name for yarrow…but maybe another time!
Anyway, fernbush is a winner in all ways. Mature plants get to be 4-6' high and wide. They are supposedly very tolerant of pruning and shearing back, though I've never felt a need to prune mine, because they seem to maintain a perfect form all on their own. You can find fernbush online at High Country Gardens and occasionally at Chalfant Big Trees—if I haven't already snatched them up!