Douglas Fir
Pseudotsuga menziesii
Pine family (Pinaceae)

The Douglas-fir is named for David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who roamed the Northwest in the 1820s, and Archibald Menzies, a fellow Scot who first discovered the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791. Douglas-firs are not true firs, not being members of the genus Abies. The trees genus is Pseudotsuga which means "false hemlock." In the 1800s the tree was commonly known as Douglas Spruce. Quite a variety of names for a tree no-one quite knows how to classify. Douglas-fir is an important timber tree, accounting for nearly one-quarter of the total lumber produced in North America. The tree also provides cover and habitat for wildlife.

Description

Large conifer, capable of exceeding 200' in height (less in the Colorado Rockies region), with a short, pyramidal, symmetrical crown at the top of a clear, straight trunk. Distinctive seed cone, 2-4 inches long, is brown with protruding 3-pronged leaf-like bracts that look like the back legs and tail of a mouse diving into a hole. Cones are almost always present, either on the trees or under them. Buds are also distinctive: sharp-pointed, shiny, with red-brown overlapping scales. Needles are flat, flexible, and without sharp tips (will not roll between fingers).

Field Marks

Massive tree with cones having mouse tail-like projections; needles flat, flexible without sharp tips.

© Al Schneider