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Mountain Hemlock
Tsuga mertensiana
  
2 Nurseries Carry This Plant

About Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) 2 Nurseries Carry This Plant Tsuga mertensiana (Mountain Hemlock) is a species of hemlock native to the west coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern Tulare County, California. It is a large evergreen coniferous tree growing to 20-40 meter tall, exceptionally 59 meter, and with a trunk diameter of up to 2 meter. The bark is thin and square-cracked or furrowed, and gray in color. The crown is a neat slender conic shape in young trees with a tilted or drooping lead shoot, becoming cylindric in older trees. At all ages, it is distinguished by the slightly pendulous branchlet tips. The shoots are orange-brown, with dense fine hair about 1 millimeter long. The leaves are needle-like, 7-25 millimeter long and 1-1.5 millimeter broad, soft, blunt-tipped, only slightly flattened in cross-section, pale waxy pale blue-green above, and with two broad bands of bluish-white stomata below with only a narrow green midrib between the bands; they differ from those of any other species of hemlock in also having stomata on the upper surface, and are arranged spirally all round the shoot. The cones are small, but much longer than those of any other species of hemlock, pendulous, cylindrical, 30-80 millimeter long and 8-10 millimeter broad when closed, opening to 12-35 millimeter broad, superficially somewhat like a small spruce cone. They have thin, flexible scales 8-18 millimeter long. The immature cones are dark purple (rarely green), maturing red-brown 5-7 months after pollination. The seeds are red-brown, 2-3 millimeter long, with a slender, 7-12 millimeter long pale pink-brown wing.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Tree

Size
Size
30 - 193.6 ft tall

Form
Form
Upright

Growth Rate
Growth Rate
Slow

Dormancy
Dormancy
Evergreen

Flower Color
Flower Color
Yellow

Flowering Season
Flowering Season
Summer

Wildlife Supported
 


 
Butterflies & moths hosted ( 16 confirmed , 39 likely * ) SHOW ALL
Neoalcis californiaria Image
Brown-lined Looper Neoalcis californiariaNeoalcis californiaria
Lophocampa argentata Image
Silver-spotted Tiger Moth Lophocampa argentataLophocampa argentata
Melanolophia imitata Image
Western Carpet Melanolophia imitataMelanolophia imitata
Cladara limitaria Image
Mottled Gray Carpet Cladara limitariaCladara limitaria
Enypia venata Image
Variable Girdle Moth Enypia venataEnypia venata
Enypia packardata Image
Packard's Girdle Moth Enypia packardataEnypia packardata
Gabriola dyari Image
Dyar's Looper Moth Gabriola dyariGabriola dyari

Landscaping Information
Sun
Sun
Full Sun, Part Shade, Shade

Moisture
Moisture
Low

Nurseries
Nurseries
Carried by 2

Soil Description
Soil Description
Prefers sandy soils

Common uses
Common uses
Bank Stabilization, Deer Resistant

Propagation
Propagation?
For propagating by seed: 3 mos. stratification (USDA Forest Service 1974).

Sunset Zones
Sunset Zones?
1, 2*, 4, 5, 6*, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17

Natural Setting
Site Type
Site Type
Forests

Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 21.4" - 139.7", Summer Precipitation: 0.67" - 5.09", Coldest Month: 11.6" - 47.9", Hottest Month: 34.8" - 70.8", Humidity: 0.21" - 21.63", Elevation: 121" - 13935"

Alternative Names
Common Names: Black Hemlock, Hemlock-spruce, Patton Spruce, Sierra Hemlock, Western Hemlock


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Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


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