Botanist Lilla Leach literally left her name in the Oregon woods through the discovery of more than 12 new Oregon plant species and two new genera. She also achieved protection of Oregon myrtle trees near the South Coast town of Brookings.
Leach led a group called Save the Myrtle Woods that joined with the Oregon Board of Forestry in buying land in 1958 from Alfred Loeb in order to preserve one of the last virgin native myrtle groves in the United States.
Earlier she had urged protection of the nearby Kalmiopsis Wilderness, where she had discovered a new species and genus of the heath family now known as Kalmiopsis leachtaria.
A short trail wanders through the Alfred State Park’s myrtle groves on the banks of the Chetco River.
The Oregon myrtle is also known as California laurel and California bay. Its fragrant leaves are more aromatic than another laurel commonly used in cooking.
Discovered by Archibald Menzies of the Vancouver Expedition of 1790, the tree is native to Southwest Oregon and south along the Coast Range from the Sierra Nevada to Southern California.
Source: Howe, Gabriel. "Hike among fragrant myrtles beside a world-class river." Mail Tribune 8 Jan. 2016 [Medford, Ore.] : D1. Print.
