Did You Know?
There are Ghosts in our redwood forests!
The Albino Redwoods
The foliage is a beautiful, pure white!
You could spend your entire life hiking in the 400-mile redwood belt and never see one.
Particularly if you're not paying attention.
But they're fairly common, exposing themselves to the lucky ones.
What are they?
They are a naturally-occuring mutation that sometimes appears in the sprouts around the base of a coast redwood. On more rare occasions they occur in the tree's foliage farther up, but these are rarely encountered by humans. Because they don't produce any nutrients on their own, they don't get beyond the clump-of-sprouts stage.
Where are they?
They seem to be concentrated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and there are several easily-accessed examples in the main grove of Henry Cowell State Park. But, you have to look carefully, because in the dappled light of the deep forest, they're hard to see.
Perhaps one of the largest in the region is in the Big Sur area - down behind Fernwood Lodge at the entrance to the campground.
What should you do if you see one?
Look, and feel gently (they feel quite differently than the green redwood needles) but don't pick them, please.
For more information:
An NPR radio show: click here
A KQED video: click here
A San Jose Mercury article: click here
