Tsuga Canadensis, Eastern Hemlock Tree Identification Fact Sheet

This is the tree, shrub, and vine identification project fact sheet for Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock. This fact sheet may not be copied in part or in whole and submitted as one's own project, but may be cited as a source of facts during one's own research. See tree, shrub, and vine identification project main page for links to other plants, and evergreen tree slideshow for pictures.

Plant Botanical Name: Tsuga canadensis

Common Name: Eastern Hemlock

Family Name: Pinaceae

Plant is Native to What Country: Eastern North America

Plant Height at Maturity: 40-100 feet, usually 40-75 feet in cultivation. Trees are 25-40 feet wide.

Plant Habit and Form: Evergreen trees assume a conical or pyramidal shape. Trees have a fine texture. Branching us usually horizontal to pendulous.

Foliage: Flat needles held in two-rank fashion, giving twigs a somewhat flat appearance. Needles green on top, having to white bands on underside. Needles are 0.3-0.75 inches long.

Bark: Gray and smooth in youth, becoming brown and flaky/scaly on mature trees. Old trees exhibit reddish brown plates or ridges of bark.

Flower: Monoecious, inconspicuous.

Fruit/Seed: Fruit a seed enclosed in brown cones 0.5-1.0 inches long borne on the branches. Cones can occur in large numbers and on lower branches.

Growing Requirements: Hardy to zone 3, Eastern Hemlock best grows in cool, moist sites with good drainage. Favorable sites are east or north slopes. Hemlock tolerates partial or even full shade, disliking dry exposed locations. Hemlock is very tolerant of hedge pruning.

Problems and Drawbacks: Eastern Hemlock is not tolerant of pollution, heat, drought, or salt spray. Deer prefer to browse on eastern hemlock, destroying seedlings and saplings. Trees are susceptible to spider mites. Trees are susceptible to wooly adalgid, a fairly recent pest that is known to destroy a lot of hemlocks.

Special Uses: Hemlock is often used as a hedge, windbreak, shade tree, screen, or specimen. Grows well in locations that are too shady for most evergreens.

ID Tips/Remarks: Differs from T. Caroliniana in that its needles are minutely serrulant as opposed to flat and needles of T. Caroliniana has a fuller, less flat spiral arrangement of needles.

Bibliography: http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/t/tsucan/tsucan1.html, http://plants.usda.gov/java/charProfile?symbol=TSCA, http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/tsucan/all.html