Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

field notes from a summer, 2005 visit to the Sierra Nevada foothills somewhat east of Placerville, California, USA
MOCK ORANGE

Mock Orange, Philadelphus lewisii, is a much-branched bush up to ten feet high, in late spring capable of being gorgeously arrayed with dense clusters of 25¢-size white flowers. The flowers of some Mock Orange species are fragrant but ours isn't terribly so. Indians used the slender stems to make shafts for arrows. Our species' Latin name honors Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.