{"id":642,"date":"2020-07-09T14:19:41","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/?page_id=642"},"modified":"2020-07-15T13:21:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T20:21:08","slug":"tsuga-heterophylla","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/tsuga-heterophylla\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsuga heterophylla"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Family: Pinaceae<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common name: Western hemlock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-flora BC: https:\/\/linnet.geog.ubc.ca\/Atlas\/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Tsuga%20heterophylla<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tsuga_heterophylla<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western hemlock grows alongside Douglas-fir<\/a> and western redcedar<\/a> in our forests. It’s not as drought tolerant as Douglas-fir, but can handle drier conditions than western redcedar. It’s a beautiful tree with many distinctive features. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, the foliage and growth habit of western hemlock appears ‘softer’ than that of Douglas-fir. The needles are shorter and the branches are weaker, making for a feathery drooping look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soft-looking drooping branches of western hemlock. Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Western hemlock, the ‘leader’ or top of the tree is characteristically drooping. This is one characteristic to look for when distinguishing it from Douglas-fir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drooping leaders on western hemlock. The branches peeking in from the right are from a western redcedar (Thuja plicata<\/a><\/em>). Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Note the dense, soft-looking foliage and drooping leader of the young western hemlock in the center. Douglas-firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii<\/a><\/em>) all around. Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If we’re walking through a forest where we don’t see the foliage of the trees very well, then the trunk and bark can be used to distinguish western hemlock. The bark of western hemlock trunks tend to be finer-textured than that of Douglas-fir, but this can be a bit difficult to discern, and it depends on the ages of the trees that you’re looking at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this photograph, the coarse, deeply grooved bark of a Douglas-fir<\/a> is seen on the far left, next over are two trunks of western hemlock – note the finer-textured bark. Another Douglas-fir trunk is visible in the distance on the right. Photo credit: Wolf Read via Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The trunk of a mature western hemlock is grooved, as shown in this photograph, but not nearly as deeply or coarsely grooved as that of Douglas-fir. Photo credit: Ashley Wood via Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let’s look more closely at the foliage of western hemlock. It’s the needles that give the tree its soft, feathery look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Light, feathery foliage of western hemlock. Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The branches of western hemlock are soft and yielding to the touch. The sprigs are fairly flat because of the way the needles are arranged along the twig. A Douglas-fir<\/a> branch is stiffer, and the needles are sharper and more evenly distributed all around the twig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A flat, soft sprig of western hemlock. Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The species epithet of western hemlock is ‘heterophylla’, meaning ‘different leaves’. Note how the name refers to the different-length needles along the twig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Note that the needles on the upper side of the sprig are noticeably shorter than the other ones. Photo credit: Hitomi Kimura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like the other conifers described on this site (Douglas-fir<\/a>, shore pine<\/a>, western redcedar<\/a>), western hemlock makes male pollen-bearing and female egg\/seed-bearing cones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The male cones of western hemlock are tiny and fall off the tree soon after pollen has been released in early spring. Photo credit: Seattlearborist.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The female cones of western hemlock are much smaller than those of Douglas-fir<\/a>, and rounder and less woody compared to those of western redcedar<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spent female cones of western hemlock. The cones are small, only about 2 cm long and egg-shaped. Photo credit: Staffan Lindgren <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For a comparison between leaf\/needle and female cone characteristics of the four conifers listed on this site, please see this conifer comparison<\/a> page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family: Pinaceae Common name: Western hemlock E-flora BC: https:\/\/linnet.geog.ubc.ca\/Atlas\/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Tsuga%20heterophylla Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tsuga_heterophylla Western hemlock grows alongside Douglas-fir and western redcedar in our forests. It’s not as drought tolerant as Douglas-fir, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2649,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-642","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/642\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}