Drive down a coastal highway in our region, and you're sure to see a sign advertising myrtlewood for sale.
But the tree has value beyond its wood: Native Americans in the region ate parts of it. That's one of many stories to emerge from the book Ethnobotany of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians.
Patricia Whereat Phillips, herself Miluk Coos, is the book's author. She visits with some of the stories of how her ancestors made use of the region's plants.