Northwest conifers may seem similar, but when you look closely at the needles and cones, it's easy to tell a pine from a fir or a hemlock from a red-cedar.
With their evergreen needles and characteristic cones, conifers can seem all the same. But actually, they’re as different from one another as their broadleaf cousins. In Pacific Northwest forests, native varieties of fir, hemlock, pine and cedar are among those you’ll most likely see.
Firs
Douglas Firs are some of the most common trees in the valleys of Western Oregon and Washington. Reaching to 250 feet, these trees shed their lower branches in dense forests where sunlight can’t penetrate below the canopy. But in forest clearings, low branches droop within reach, so you can see the foliage up close. Needles about an inch long grow all around the twigs. Hold a single needle between you fingers and you’ll feel that it’s flat. Douglas Firs aren’t considered true firs, but stand alone under the botanic name, Pseudotsuga (false hemlock).Their hanging cones are partly responsible for this: true firs have cones sitting upright on the branches. Douglas Fir cones are about two inches long with three-pronged bracts between the soft scales. Douglas Firs are popular for Christmas trees.
Grand Firs are true firs with proper upright cones. Their needles grow in two sizes and are silvery on the bottom. They’re arranged in flat rows that look as if the twigs had been ironed.
Hemlocks
The Western Hemlock is easy to recognize by its drooping top. Legends abound about this hanging tip, including one that says the hemlock hangs its head because its cones are so embarrassingly small. The Western Hemlock is tall and stately, but its cones are among the smallest of the conifer tribe, measuring less than an inch. Hemlocks can grow below the forest’s shady canopy, where their majestic skirt-like shape and lacy-looking foliage have earned them the title “Queen of the Forest.” Needles are dark green, short and of uneven lengths.
Cedars
The Western Red-cedar is unmistakable for its aroma, its reddish fibrous bark and its scale-like foliage that hangs in long, graceful sprays like robes on a forest king. Its tiny cones sit upright and look like woody flowers. Growing to 180 feet, the Red-cedar was important to Native Americans, who made war canoes from its trunk and wove ropes and clothing from its bark.
Spruces
It’s said that if you shake hands with a Sitka Spruce you won’t have to ask its name: its needles are so sharp you’ll know it immediately. Sitka Spruces are coastal residents, often sharing their damp forest habitat with hemlocks. The prickly needles are about an inch long and circle the twigs. It has scaly bark and egg-shaped cones about three inches long.
Pines
Pines can be identified by their needles, which grow in bundles of two, three or five. In the Pacific Northwest, the related Lodgepole and Shore Pines are found west of the Cascade Range. Both have short needles in bundles of two. But their appearance is different. Lodgepole Pines live inland where they grow tall and straight. Shore Pines live on the coast where they withstand the ocean winds with a shorter stance, an often contorted shape, and branching crowns. On the drier eastern side of the Cascades, Ponderosa Pines are distinctive for their long needles (up to 10 inches) in bundles of three. Their cones are also large, reaching six inches.
A good field guide to additional trees is Trees of the Pacific Northwest by George A. Petrides with illustrations by Olivia Petrides. Publisher is Stackpole Books.
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