Plantae > Tracheophyta > Pinopsida > Pinales > Pinaceae > Tsuga > Tsuga mertensiana

Tsuga mertensiana (Mountain hemlock; Alpine hemlock; Black hemlock; Hemlock spruce)

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

Wikipedia Abstract

Tsuga mertensiana, known as 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. Mertensiana refers to Franz Carl Mertens (1764–1831), a German botanist.
View Wikipedia Record: Tsuga mertensiana

Infraspecies

Tsuga mertensiana grandicona
Tsuga mertensiana mertensiana

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]  Early Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  Low
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  5 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Stem
Growth Period [2]  Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Janka Hardness [4]  680 lbf (308 kgf) Soft
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [2]  3.346 feet (102 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Seeds Per [2]  114060 / lb (251459 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Specific Gravity [5]  0.45
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  The slightly unripe cones are used in pot-pourri. They retain an attractive scent for several years; Yields a resin similar to Abies balsamea, it is gathered by incisions in the trunk or by boiling the wood; The bark contains 8 - 14% tannin; The inner bark is used according to one report; A brown dye is obtained from the bark; The boughs are steamed or rubbed on furniture and used as a room deodorant and disinfectant; A pitch (called hemlock pitch), is obtained by distillation of the young branches; Tolerant of light trimming, plants can be grown as a tall hedge; Wood - strong; Used for heavy construction; Close-grained, light, soft and weak according to other reports, which go on to say that it is occasionally manufactured into lumber when other wood is not available;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Height [3]  148 feet (45 m)
Width [3]  33 feet (10 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 5 Low Temperature: -20 F° (-28.9 C°) → -10 F° (-23.3 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]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
Water Use [1]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Tsuga mertensiana

Protected Areas

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Arceuthobium campylopodum (western dwarf mistletoe)[8]
Chrysophana placida[8]
Trachykele nimbosa[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
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 7FOOD HABITS IN RELATION TO THE ECOLOGY AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF BLUE GROUSE, RICHARD DENNIS KING, Masters Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1964
♦ 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