Plantae > Tracheophyta > Pinopsida > Pinales > Pinaceae > Tsuga > Tsuga canadensis

Tsuga canadensis (Canada hemlock; Eastern hemlock; Black hemlock; Canadian hemlock; Common hemlock)

Synonyms:
Language: Chi; Cze; Dut; Fre; Ger; Hrv, Srp; Hun; Ita; Rus; Slo

Wikipedia Abstract

Tsuga canadensis, also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as pruche du Canada, is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of Pennsylvania.
View Wikipedia Record: Tsuga canadensis

Infraspecies

Abies pectinata var. pectinata
Picea canadensis var. canadensis

Attributes

Air Quality Improvement [1]  Low
Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Carbon Capture [1]  Medium-Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Dense
Shade Percentage [1]  91 %
Temperature Reduction [1]  High
Wind Reduction [1]  Medium-High
Bloom Period [2]  Mid Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Medium
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  80 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Janka Hardness [4]  500 lbf (227 kgf) Very Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  28 inches (71 cm)
Scent [3]  The crushed foliage has a sweet lemony scent; Another report says that it emits the unpleasant smell of hemlock;
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  187200 / lb (412705 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.4
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  Yields a resin similar to Abies balsamea, it is gathered by incisions in the trunk or by boiling the wood; A pitch (called hemlock pitch), is obtained by distillation of the young branches; 'Oil of Hemlock' is distilled from the young branches according to another report; The bark contains 8 - 14% tannin; The inner bark is used according to one report; The inner bark has been used in making baskets; A red to brown dye is obtained from the bark; A red dye is obtained from the inner bark according to another report; A little rock dust has been added to act as a mordant when boiling the bark; The boiled bark has been used to make a wash to clean rust off iron and steel, and to prevent further rusting; Tolerant of light trimming, plants can be grown as a hedge; This species does not make a good hedge in Britain; Some cultivars can be grown as a ground cover when planted about 1 metre apart each way; 'Pendula' is slow-growing but makes a very good cover; Wood - coarse-grained, light, soft, not strong, brittle, not durable outdoors; Difficult to work because it splits easily; The wood weighs 26lb per cubic foot; The trees do not self-prune and so the wood contains numerous remarkably hard knots that can quickly dull the blade of an axe; A coarse lumber, it is used occasionally for the outside of buildings; It should be used with caution as a fuel for outdoor fires because it can project embers and burning wood several metres from the fire;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Dark Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Height [3]  66 feet (20 m)
Width [3]  26 feet (8 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Hardiness Zone Maximum [1]  USDA Zone: 7 Low Temperature: 0 F° (-17.8 C°) → 10 F° (-12.2 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mostly Shady
Soil Acidity [2]  Very Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Tsuga canadensis

Protected Areas

Emblem of

Pennsylvania

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Adelges tsugae (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid)[8]
Chrysobothris pusilla[8]
Naohidemyces vaccinii[8]

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1i-Tree Species v. 4.0, developed by the USDA Forest Service's Northern Research Station and SUNY-ESF using the Horticopia, Inc. plant database.
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Wood Janka Hardness Scale/Chart J W Morlan's Unique Wood Gifts
♦ 5Forest Inventory and Analysis DB version 5.1, May 4, 2013, U.S. Forest Service
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 8Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0