Travel Tips

If you come to the beautiful Pacific Northwest, be sure to check out our abundant supply of trees. Here's a sampling of what you might find.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga mensiezii) is probably our most common tree. "Pseudo" means fake, "tsuga" means fir/hemlock, so its species name means "fake fir" or "fake hemlock". People often lump it in with fir trees, but it doesn't have the characteristics of true firs. You can ID a doug fir with its cones, which have those little things sticking out of them.

Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). "Tsuga" is hemlock. "Hetero" means varied, and "phylla" means leaf. So it's a hemlock with varied leaf lengths. That's a good way to ID the hemlock up close -- take a branch in your hand, and compare the top set of needles to the set below. The ones below will be longer. Also look for small clusters of lightweight cones, and a "drooping leader". This refers to the top of the tree when it's drooping. If you see a tree that looks "sad" at the top, chances are it's a hemlock.

If you're in the mountains, above the tree line, what you're probably looking at is a Mountain hemlock, which has more bristly needles in the shape of starbursts.

Western red cedar (Thuja plicata). I actually don't know what the latin means in this case; if anyone does, let me know. I do know that this may be our most majestic tree. The Native Americans used this tree for many parts of their lives, including for diapers, dugout canoes, totem poles, etc. The easiest way to ID the cedar is to look at the bark. It has "smooth" bark that looks like it can be peeled off in long strips. Also, the needles are like small fish scales and the cones are tiny.