Some Monterey trees in Ireland.

Abstract

At first sight it seems strange that trees found in nature only on the Monterey peninsula in California, a place of hot, dry summers, should grow with singular speed and luxuriance in cool, damp Ireland. In fact, they do not really like Monterey at all. They only grow there, which is not the same thing. During the onset of the Ice Ages, the trees of the Rocky Mountain complex could move south ahead of the cold, following their preferred climate towards, and into, Mexico, since the ranges run north and south. When this was (as we hope) all over, the trees migrated north again. Some, however, took a wrong turning. Erosion by the sea had cut the minor range and left the stub as a peninsula. The trees could go no further, and as the hills and valleys behind became drier and hotter, they could not retreat. So there they stuck, with the climate warming up and the beach huts and golf courses arriving. They would be far happier on the Olympic Peninsula with the Sitka spruce and Thuja...