Hiking in the isolated country overlooking the
Klamath River, just a few miles from
Weitchpec, I suddenly smelled
turpentine. A stong, unmistakable odor in the summer-heated air. And to my mind, completely out of place. The closest permanent human dwelling is miles away from this spot; so is the nearest passable road. The only trees are
douglas fir and
oaks, neither of which smell like turpentine. So, please, what is turpentine doing out here?
This particular area was logged in the 1950's, and nearby was a length of logging cable and a broken axle from a logging truck, both well along in the process of rusting back into the ground. Anyway, turpentine?? Motor oil OK, gear lube OK (though after 60 years you'd think it would all be long gone....)
Then I think arson. It is fire season, and it is a practice among the local firefighters to start forest fires so that they can be paid for putting them out. There are many such fires. But, reasoning further, I reflect that our local arsonists are a lazy lot, and their method is to drive along Highway 96 and throw burning matter out the windows of their pickup trucks, not to hike miles into the wilderness. Also, turpentine?? Turp is a fairly heavy hydrocarbon, and doesn't really light very easily. Wouldn't gasoline, which is so much more available (and so much more volatile), be a better choice?
It was my amateur botanist husband who solved the mystery. Underfoot was a sort of carpet of low, nondescript grayish plants, which, when crushed (as by my footsteps) emitted the unmistakable and powerful odor I had identified.
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In the mint family (Labiatae), genus Trichostema (common name, Blue Curls), Species laxum. Common name: turpentine weed.
The plants can be up to 12 inches high, though these, growing on a parched hillside, were smaller. It occurs in the stream beds or low summer fields of the North Coast Ranges of California: Sonoma and Napa Counties, north to Humboldt County and west to Glenn County. All the mints are perennial, and they tend to be aromatic, though most of their odors are more pleasing than this one. Trichestema laxum flowers from July through September. The odor comes from both leaves and flowers, and can be very powerful under the right conditions. The warmth of the summer sun brought this odd delight to my attention.
Jepson, Willis Linn, A Manual of the Flowering Plants of California, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles. There are later editions, but the old one on the cabin bookshelf, the one I used to make the identification, shows a copyright 1925, renewed 1953, Sixth Printing 1966.