pseudo: false
tsuga: hemlock
menziesii: named for Archibald Menzies, Scottish botanist
...
This is my favorite tree.
Nothing is as quintessentially “Pacific Northwest” as the sight of a Douglas Fir spearing hundreds of feet into the sky, especially right by the ocean, especially on a day as overcast as yesterday was.
There are two types of Douglas-firs. The one we'll be talking about is the Coastal Doug-fir, though there is another variety known as the Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir. As you can likely guess by its name, the latter grows more inland in mountainous regions.
Coastal Doug-firs are ubiquitous near the ocean, so in order to snap a few pictures, I took a bit of a detour from my regular route and headed up Chuckanut Drive. This iconic road parallels the Pacific from the Skagit Valley, where I was raised, to Bellingham, WA, a city near the Canadian border.
During the summer, the views and greenery on Chuckanut Drive are phenomenal. But even in the winter, though dreary and cold, you'll still find many cars parked along the side of this route for a winter hike or to simply take in its breathtaking views.
Some of my favorite moments have taken place on this route. Even now, I love to scamper through the forest and jump into the ocean when it's hot enough (the window for ocean swimming lasts for approximately two weeks in the PNW). Doug-firs are truly emblematic of this place.
In fact, I love these trees so much that I got a tattoo of one several years ago.
At the time of the tattoo I learned that Doug-firs are commonly used as Christmas trees. In the wild, when able to reach their full potential, they can reach over 300 feet tall and live for over 1,000 years. The tallest one alive today currently resides in Coos County, Oregon, measuring at 327 feet. Fittingly, the official state tree of Oregon is the Douglas-fir, which is also sometimes referred to as"Oregon pine."
So, which is it: A fir or a pine? And why does its botanical name include tsuga, which refers to the family of hemlocks?
The short answer is that scientists cannot make up their minds, and there's been a lot of contention and flip-flopping on this matter: The Doug-fir has been renamed 21 times as scientists tried to figure out if it more closely met the criteria of a pine, spruce, fir, or hemlock.
Finally, in 1953, it was agreed upon to stick with Pseudotsuga menziesii. The layman's name, Douglas-fir, is so named for another Scottish botanist, David Douglas, who "discovered" and studied this tree widely upon coming to the old-growth forests here. As I'll discuss in my post on the "cedars" in the PNW, these aren’t the only trees in the region to be misnamed.
If anything, they seem to be most common to a larch. However, larches turn yellow in the fall and are deciduous (meaning they lose all their foliage), whereas our tall boys stay dark green 365 days a year, for centuries if you let them.
The confusion is understandable, even to me, with my limited knowledge of trees. The structure of a Doug is definitely reminiscent of a spruce (a growth pattern that contains three "fingers" at the ends of branches are how I first learned to identify spruce), but the needles are not nearly as sharp.
A spruce will poke a bit if you touch its needles; a Doug-fir will not. The needles of the Doug are also much flatter and softer:
Mature trees are only covered in foliage at the top two-thirds, giving them a memorable “naked trunk” look that distinguishes them from other similar-looking trees. Their bark is also easy to identify by its deep, reddish-brown furrows, which often drip with pitch.
I read that this pitch works great to make low-smoke fires and hope to try this when the weather warms up. In the meantime, be prepared to step away a bit sticky when coming in contact with a mature Doug-fir trunk!
Their life cycle takes place over the course of 17 months, beginning in April and lasting until the following September. Both male and female structures needed for reproduction emerge in this growth cycle, though cones don't appear on Douglas-firs until 12-15 years of age. Seeds thrive in well-draining, moist, mineral-rich soil.
Given their strong preference for the coast, these guys will not grow nearly as tall when placed in compacted soil with less-than-ideal drainage.
Saplings appear after about 150 days in the soil (though can be kept viable for up to 2 years). Brand new tree babies grow well in light shade, but once they grow up a bit, they become eager for sunlight: At this point, they'll grow 1-2 feet per year, a medium rate of growth.
Once established, the trees "self-prune" the lower branches from their trunks and maintain the above-stated growth rate until they hit their peak height. The tallest ever recorded was 415 feet. At such tremendous heights, transmitting water from the tree's root system up to its highest foliage becomes more challenging and makes additional growth unlikely.
Speaking of root systems: Check out this awesome video which discusses the Doug-fir's relationship to fungal friends in their root systems. Basically, trees communicate with each other and the organisms in the soil all the time. They are in a complex, symbiotic, interconnected network that results in the natural harmony felt when we step into a healthy forest.
Uses: The Douglas-fir is and has been widely used for timber. Many Doug-fir farms cropped up across the region for this use after its usefulness was "discovered." (I put "discovered" in quotes every time because it is so silly to imagine any single human taking credit for naming and studying a plant that pre-exists such systems of thought). Its wood can be used for a variety of building purposes, and this versatility makes it highly valued. Fun fact: The only wooden ships still in use by the United States Navy are made out of Doug-fir wood.
As far as natural medicine goes, Douglas-fir resin can be chewed in order to soothe sore throats and is a natural antiseptic. Tea can also be brewed from the antioxicant-rich needles (best to use neon-green spring growth). The Doug-fir is well-loved for its many functions, as home to birds and as food for browsers such as deer and elk. Small animals also enjoy the seeds when the cones fall.
Regarding landscaping: This tree will not likely reach hundreds of feet tall when placed in your yard. The conditions are just not what the tree prefers, and they tend to cap out at 30'-40' when not wild. Nonetheless, if you have a significant amount of space you want to fill with PNW natives, you can't go wrong with this one. (Also, we should probably be friends.)
As for me, there are few things more comforting than the sight of a Doug-fir lined horizon. I hope you appreciate this majestic tree as much as I do.
- Lish
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